Mick Hartley

From the Times. The bad news:

Claims of two-tier policing are an extreme right-wing narrative, according to an internal Home Office review that recommended sweeping changes to the UK’s approach to combating extremism.

The Home Office document also cites how right-wing extremists “frequently exploit” the grooming gangs scandal — described as “alleged group-based sexual abuse” — to promote anti-Muslim sentiment.

It recommended that the UK’s approach to tackling extremism should no longer be based on specific ideologies such as Islamism or the far right but “on behaviours and activity of concern”. This is because of the “dizzying range of beliefs and ideologies we see”, it added.

A set of "sweep it all under the table" recommendations, in other words.

And the good news.

After the details of the report were leaked, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, said he and the home secretary had rejected the report’s recommendations despite having commissioned the review.

It's the Home Office. The Civil Service. It's how they think. Fortunately the government doesn't seem to agree.

The report, first obtained by Policy Exchange, a conservative think tank, and seen by The Times, contained 38 recommendations to better combat extremism in the UK, including an increase in the police recording of non-crime hate incidents. It proposed reversing the code of conduct introduced by the previous government that ordered police to record non-criminal hate incidents only if there was a serious risk of harm.

Yep, that should do the trick. More police recording of non-crime hate incidents. Of course.

Other recommendations included forcing social media companies to proactively remove any content that encouraged rioting or violent disorder and adding more aggravating factors to hate crime laws to ensure those convicted get longer sentences.

I imagine a strengthening of laws against "Islamophobia" would also go down well.

Policy Exchange warned that the changes proposed would play down the threat of Islamic extremism. The Home Office document itself cited the head of MI5 stating that its counterterrorist work remained three-quarters focused on Islamist extremism and a quarter on extreme right-wing terrorism.

Paul Stott and Andrew Gilligan, of Policy Exchange, warned in their report on the leaked document: “This new approach risks swamping already stretched counterextremism interveners and counterterror police with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of new cases, making it more likely that dangerous people will be missed.

“Some of the definitions of extremism also threaten free speech, defining aspects of normal and legitimate political debate as extremist.”…

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said it was draconian to describe those making claims of two-tier policing as extremists. He said: “Commenting on police response to incidents is not far-right. We live in a democracy and people are entitled to debate the way we are policed. That’s not far-right; that’s part of legitimate debate in a democracy. You can agree or disagree with these views but freedom of speech means they have the right to express them.”