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Francis Hoar

18 Jul, 9 tweets, 3 min read

@LozzaFox

I’m looking forward to the publication and launch on Tuesday of the report I have written, ‘In Protection of Freedom of Speech’, kindly commissioned by @LozzaFox with a Foreword by Lord Sumption.

thesun.co.uk/news/15620655/…

@thereclaimparty

The report was commissioned by the @thereclaimparty but is independent. I currently have no party political affiliation.

The Report opposes the Online Safety Bill, a dangerous imposition on freedom of speech online which wld impose on social media companies a duty to remove content that cld cause ‘harm’ to an adult of ‘reasonable sensibilities’,irrespective of whether it is a crime or civil wrong

It doesn’t take much imagination to see the breadth of content that could cover. Giving the state such indeterminate - and indeterminable - authority over communication is gravely concerning. But so it is when social media companies censor speech.

Given their quasi-monopoly over particular forms of presentation of political speech online, the report proposes that they be prevented from censoring speech save where it constitutes a criminal offence or civil wrong (eg libel or breach of privacy).

The report also proposes that the police be prevented from investigating or reporting ‘hate incidents’ unless a crime is suspected;and to reform the Public Order Act to remove the offence of making ‘insulting’ or ‘abusive’ remarks that may simply cause distress (section 5).

Finally, the Report proposes a new legal protection of the speech of employees outside their workplaces, subject to limited caveats.

More on this on Tuesday.
Many thanks to Lucile Taylor and Anna Loutfi for superb contributions and editing and to Laurence Fox and Toby Vincent for commissioning this work and for their support throughout.

@Daily_Express

See also in the Sunday @Daily_Express (elevating me to ‘QC’, which I am not…)

express.co.uk/news/uk/146397…

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More from @Francis_Hoar

Francis Hoar

@Francis_Hoar

12 Jul

https://twitter.com/Valkyrie20201/status/1414610598034280457

This is a deeply regressive measure that reverses the progression of international humanitarian law and the common law towards respect for bodily integrity; and the recognition that that respect requires the protection of the right to informed consent and the absence of coercion.

https://twitter.com/Valkyrie20201/status/1414610598034280457

Compulsory vaccination is not unknown in this country - it was tried in the 19th century at a time when the poor were expected to know their place and that place was set by Poor Law Guardians. Aside from the effect on their bodily integrity and dignity, it was not a success.

But it was the 20th century that unveiled what medical professionals can do when unchecked by the protection of the dignity of the human person and his right to bodily integrity.

Read 15 tweets

Francis Hoar

@Francis_Hoar

6 Jul

@IainDale

@IainDale @lucyallan Yours are pig ignorant.

Care to identify a single country or state in which the introduction of a mask mandate has made any difference to the growth or decline or infections, hospitalisations or deaths?

@IainDale

@IainDale @lucyallan Because the studies about mask efficacy in clinical settings (indecisive but irrelevant to their use in the community) & the limited randomised controlled trials about their use in the community (which show they make no difference)are now diversions in the light of that evidence.

@IainDale

@IainDale @lucyallan If mask *mandates* requiring them to be worn in the community make any difference to infection, you would be able to identify when they were introduced.

Read 4 tweets

Francis Hoar

@Francis_Hoar

14 Jun

@SCynic1

@SCynic1 @AdamWagner1 @DAaronovitch What factors haven’t I balanced?
In answering your question, take account of the following:

@SCynic1

@SCynic1 @AdamWagner1 @DAaronovitch That, before the People’s Republic of China, no modern state has ever restricted the movements of all its citizens in response to a respiratory virus;
Or any state, for that matter;

@SCynic1

@SCynic1 @AdamWagner1 @DAaronovitch That all state and WHO pandemic plans didn’t just recommend against restrictions on healthy people, they didn’t contemplate it while recommending against mass testing once a virus had become endemic ( apps.who.int/iris/bitstream…);

Read 8 tweets

Francis Hoar

@Francis_Hoar

14 Jun

@Ed_Levey

Thanks, @Ed_Levey, for speaking out on this.
Elevating one issue above all others is at the core of this insanity. Respiratory pandemics fizzle out not by infections reducing to minimal levels but by natural (and now artificial) immunity & the evolution of less dangerous strains.

https://twitter.com/ed_levey/status/1404327223688110082

It is crazy to measure the progress of this one by ‘cases’ - and even crazier when they are not all cases in any meaningful way as they include asymptomatic infections.

And it is dangerous to link our ‘freedoms’ (or rather the licence given to us by the state) to the progress of one virus.

Read 4 tweets

Francis Hoar

@Francis_Hoar

5 Jun

https://twitter.com/9thfloor/status/1358825646294769664

Great research into the ethical and safety standards of the company whose product has just been given emergency authorisation to be used on 12-15 yr olds.
This is on the basis of the testing of only around 2,000 children.
Let’s measure that against the risk of Covid to them:

https://twitter.com/9thfloor/status/1358825646294769664

(First, here is the source for that testing figure: apple.news/A0qqUpNzRQ6KSv….)

In two respiratory virus seasons (considering that March-May 2020 can be treated as one) only 40 children have died in England within 28 days of a positive PCR test showing they have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, out of a population of around 11 million.

Read 19 tweets