Dunne Speaks

In the wake of the Christchurch terrorism incident, specifically the publication on-line of the alleged killer’s so-called manifesto, the topic of hate speech and how to deal with it has come more strongly into public focus. There have been calls for stricter regulation of social media, with the Prime Minister being invited to co-chair with the President of France an international meeting on the subject. At the other end of the scale has been the brief call from a Labour MP to consider the regulation of all media content to control hate speech. These reactions highlight the extent of the dilemma. Everybody knows there is a problem to be dealt with, but few seem completely confident about what the precise problem is, let alone how it should be dealt with. At the extreme edges, such as the Christchurch alleged killer’s diatribe, there would be close to unanimity about the vileness and unacceptability of what he was promoting, but the problem is there would be a considerable diversi...

When I first became an MP back in 1984 one of the earliest and sagest pieces of advice I received was from my illustrious predecessor, Sir John Marshall, who told me "be loyal to your electorate and it will be loyal to you." It was advice I was to follow constantly for the next 33 years. A variation of that theme had been more bluntly expressed in the United States a few years earlier by the irrepressible Speaker, "Tip" O'Neil, who bluntly stated "all politics is local." In other words, voters and constituents are most concerned about the issues that affect their personal lives and the communities in which they live, and often they will vote accordingly, and support candidates whom they see as aligned to their concerns, even if they may not belong to the party of their preference. The "all politics is local" mantra becomes all the more relevant under MMP. While it is the party vote that determines the overall make-up of Parliament, an...