Bromley Council in London has passed a landmark policy to enshrine free speech in its policies, procedures, code of conduct and constitution.
This decision didn’t come about by accident. For many months, the FSU has been working with Bromley councillors to get the policy right — and as the FSU’s Chief Legal Counsel Dr Bryn Harris, and Cllr Simon Fawthorp point out for ConHome, this is only the beginning. Here’s an extract.
Too often, anti-free speech activism trumps common sense and liberal tolerance. Working with the FSU, the Council determined to lead by example and restore the balance by emphasising the importance of free speech.
Work began on protecting and enhancing employees’ and Councillors’ rights, particularly where competing rights were identified. The aim was to create a policy that was meaningful and enforceable, which wouldn’t just offer up warm words and platitudes.
Here’s what we have done.
Bromley Council must now review its policies, procedures and Constitution to ensure that they reflect the fundamental importance of the right to freedom of speech and, in particular, the Council must acknowledge the narrow scope for interfering with political expression. We have re-emphasised our protection for whistle-blowers, assuring our employees that complaints about suppression of certain beliefs are likely to attract whistle-blower protections under the Employment Rights Act and the Equality Act. During the Bromley Council committee debate where the policy was agreed, the free speech arguments of enlightenment around protecting our employees’ right to challenge without repercussion, and about allowing employees the freedom to speak their minds whilst being protected from an inadvertent HR blunder, won the day.
We have identified political speech as being important, Councillors are not employees and do not fall under the remit of a Human Resources style regime. Too often codes of conduct and constitutions treat politicians like employees, rather than democratically elected individuals who are duty bound to represent their residents and constituents. Often some councils allow codes of conduct to be abused by political agitators looking to score points off opponents. We will update Bromley Council’s code of conduct, and indeed its constitution, to prioritise free speech above HR-style inquisition and political snitching. It is important to remind everyone that Councillors have the right of limited privilege during some of their Council activities. Political speech will often include hyperbole to help make points during a debate. Finally, Bromley Council is now in the process of updating its constitution to reflect the importance of free speech so that Councillors are also protected for strongly held beliefs.
During the discussions on the policy at Bromley Council, it was pointed out that “there is no right to not be offended, because put simply, being offended is a choice an individual makes, you can’t just be offended. Freedom of speech is not democratic; just as a totalitarian minority can’t take away freedom of expression held by a majority, nor can a majority vote to take away freedom of expression from a minority.”
We anticipate that the decision by Bromley Council, will give inspiration to many councillors and councils up and down the country that they too can have the protection of free speech and will now have the precedent with which to proceed.
Worth reading in full.
