‘We’re not the thought police’, says the new chief inspector of constabulary, Andy Cooke. That the police don’t want to concern themselves with what’s going on inside our heads, punishing those who entertain dissenting ideas, is welcome news. But the fact Cooke even felt he had to make this intervention, in his first interview in post no less, reminds us just how bad things have become in English policing in recent years.
Cooke is clearly keen to push back – or at least be seen to be pushing back – against the alarming rise of what can legitimately be called thought policing in our supposedly liberal country. More than 120,000 so-called non-crime hate incidents were recorded by police between 2014 and 2019. Infamously, these are non-criminal actions that have been recorded by police forces, and can float up on an advanced background check, even where there is zero evidence to corroborate that there was any hate involved.
In the topsy-turvy world of 21st-century Britain, demanding or enforcing state censorship is how you appear liberal and progressive.
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