Imagine a policeman feels your collar and tells you you’re nicked because someone has reported you for telling off-colour stories in a corner of the rugby club bar, or for making sick jokes at a party to a group of friends which the authorities disapproved of? Something as positively Stasi-esque wouldn’t happen here, would it? Perhaps not in that form, at least yet.
How have we got to the position where we are policing private speech for politeness?
But change the scenario to the online world, and something disconcertingly like it is already in place. This week it was announced that six ex-members of the Metropolitan police now face charges which could result in them being sent down for up to six months because they had allegedly shared among themselves racist jokes and derogatory comments. The messages had appeared on WhatsApp between 2018 and 2022. These messages, it seems, were then passed to the BBC.
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