Lucy Connolly, the wife of a Tory councillor currently serving a two-and-a-half-year stint at His Majesty’s pleasure over an ill-advised tweet, should not be in jail. Ms Connolly was incarcerated last October for 31 months after a post on Elon Musk’s platform amid the furious migrant riots. This lunchtime, her appeal against this absurd sentence was dismissed.
I do not argue that her post could have been inflammatory, though there is absolutely no evidence that her words did anything to actually pour petrol on the flames. Britain’s supposed adherence to the principles of free speech is being whittled away year-by-year, and Ms Connolly has now found herself inadvertently becoming a martyr for those pushing back against this disgraceful erosion. We can and must have a debate about the UK’s absurd laws on free speech, which currently mean some things said online are illegal when they would not be if spoken in the real world.
However, the length of Ms Connolly’s sentence should be at the forefront of our minds at the moment. She was given 31 months for a tweet. That is over two and a half years. Given the government’s current early release policy, she’ll be in prison for over a year before she sees freedom.
Do a Google of recent sentencing decisions in Britain and compare Ms Connolly’s fate. Yesterday, an alleged Hamas supporter who made antisemitic comments was jailed for nine months, after attempting to enter the UK illegally on a small boat.
On Sunday, a female prison officer who tried to get pregnant with an “exceptionally dangerous” rapist by having sex with him up to 40 times, avoided jail altogether.
Last Thursday, a man avoided jail for assaulting a police officer – for which there is a special bespoke law – and stealing £400 worth of alcohol.
Four days ago, a teenager with a collection of child sexual abuse videos avoided jail and was ordered to carry out community service instead.
I could go on and recount not just those members of our society who avoided jail when they should have been banged up, but those who have enjoyed early release since this new government came to power.
Why is the government having to let prisoners free? Because there is a crisis in our prisons, with capacity at an all time low.
However our judges and best legal bods believe that keeping a mother in prison for over a year over a tweet is a sensible and fair use of that limited capacity.
This case should make all of our stomachs turn. It is clearly correct that, under existing law, Ms Connolly ended up behind bars. But the length of her sentence makes not just a mockery of our justice system, but of the idea that free speech is remotely protected in Britain if it goes against the prevailing views of the establishment.
Vice President JD Vance is absolutely right to warn that Britain, and Europe as a whole, is sliding down a very dangerous slippery slope on free speech.
In time, I have no doubt that the next right wing government will rectify these legal problems. But in the mean time, we must all put political pressure on those in power to stop beating up the little guy, and focus the state’s resources on imprisoning those who actually deserve it.
