Attempts to claim that the treatment of Lucy Connolly and Bob Vylan in any way demonstrate a “two tier” justice system are completely wide of the mark, argues barrister Gareth Roberts
I would wager that most of the people currently hammering on their keyboards about the punishment that should be meted out to, in no particular order, the BBC, Bob Vylan and the organisers of Glastonbury, probably didn’t actually catch the set by the London based punk/rap duo, in which, during the course of their performance they led the crowd in a chant of ‘death, death to the IDF’.
Nevertheless, Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, was so outraged that she was prompted to the despatch box to declare that the comments were ‘appalling and unacceptable,’ and stating that the BBC had questions to answer over its decision to broadcast.
Head of Ofcom, Baroness Smith, seemed to agree with Nandy, and accused the group of ‘definitely inciting racial hatred.’ Meanwhile, Chris Philp, the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, decided to wade in by linking the performance of the duo to the case of Lucy Connolly, the wife of Conservative Counsellor who was jailed for 31 months after pleading guilty to the offence of inciting racial hatred.
He also added his inevitable attack on the integrity of the BBC and the Prime Minister, saying about Bob Vylan, that ‘he (sic), should be arrested and prosecuted immediately, ‘ and a failure to do so, would be a clear example of the ‘two tier justice system under Kier Starmer....
costing the Department of Veterans Affairs $3 million by making false claims to get his scuba school into a GI Bill-funded program, the Third Circuit held in a precedential ruling Tuesday. . . . La...