the times | Tuesday December 21 2021 15
News
A retired policeman visited by his local
force after tweeting about transgender
rights has won a battle over free speech
after judges said his treatment could
have a “chilling effect” on public debate.
The Court of Appeal ruled unani-
mously yesterday that the “hate crime
operational guidance” from the College
of Policing unlawfully breached Harry
Miller’s human rights. The ruling could
call into question thousands of other
matters recorded since the guidance
was issued in 2014.
Miller, 56, was told by an officer from
Humberside police who visited his
workplace in January 2019: “I’m here to
check your thinking.” The force was
compared by a High Court judge to the
Stasi or the Gestapo at a hearing last
February.
Miller’s 31 tweets included a limerick
about transgender women having
“male privilege” and one saying: “I was
assigned mammal at birth but my ori-
entation is fish. Don’t mis-species me.”
Non-crime hate incidents, as his was
designated, are recorded by police but
Harry Miller said common
sense had prevailedTrans limerick tweeter wins free speech battle
John Simpson Crime Correspondent do not constitute a criminal record.
They are not disclosed on ordinary
criminal record certificates but will
show on an enhanced search.
The report created by the force de-
scribed Miller as a suspect and the
woman who reported him as the victim,
stating that Miller had been “posting
transphobic comments on Twitter
causing offence and showing hatred for
the transgender community”.
Speaking outside court yesterday,
Miller said: “Common sense has finally
been restored. We had to go the long
route round and get rid of the guidance
because chief constables are too stupid
or morally bankrupt or intellectually
bankrupt to know what is the right
thing to do.”
In his witness statement Miller said
that he had never been “antagonistic
toward those who self-identify as a gen-
der which is contrary to their biological
sex”, and believed people had the right
to “present and perform in any way
they choose”. But he added: “A biologi-
cal man is a biological man and a bio-
logical woman is a biological woman.
To claim otherwise is extraordinary.
Extraordinary claims require both ex-
traordinary evidence and extraordina-
ry scrutiny prior to becoming law.”
Last year the High Court ruled
that the force had acted dispro-
portionately and interfered with
Miller’s freedom of
speech. His further
claim that the
guidelines were un-
lawful was rejected.
The Court of
Appeal said, how-
ever, that subse-quent revisions to the guidelines had
not gone far enough. Dame Victoria
Sharp said in the ruling: “There is noth-
ing about excluding irrational com-
plaints, including those where there is
no evidence of hostility, and little, if
anything, to address the chilling effect
which this may have on the legitimate
exercise of freedom of expression.”
Iain Raphael, of the College of
Policing, said it aimed to balance free-
dom of speech with protecting the
vulnerable and would review the judg-
ment and make any changes necessary.
Giles Coren, Magic transformation,
page 30
Stuff of fantasy, letters, page 32Non-criminal hate
College of Policing guidance defined
a hate incident as one “which the
victim or anyone else thinks is
based on prejudice towards them
because of their race, religion,
sexual orientation, disability or
because they are transgender”.
It was criminal if an offence,
like assault, was committed.
More than 87,000 non-
crime hate incidents were
recorded in England and
Wales from 2014 to 2019.patrick kiddTMS
[email protected] | @timesdiaryRogers’ shaky
foundation
Many a teacher has failed to
recognise a genius. “He will never
amount to anything,” one wrote of
Albert Einstein, up there with “on
the road to failure” (said of John
Lennon), “unambitious” (Winston
Churchill) and “you can’t make a
living out of football” (Gary
Lineker) for poor predictions. The
architect Richard Rogers, who
died at the weekend, also made a
poor early impression. In 1958 his
report from architecture college
said that while he had a genuine
interest, he “sorely lacks the
intellectual equipment to translate
these feelings into sound
buildings”. It added that he would
never amount to much “while his
drawing is so bad, his method of
works so chaotic and his critical
judgment so inarticulate”. Well, it’s
more polite than what Prince
Charles used to say about him.take a bow
In 1851 Prince Albert became
patron of a rowing festival 15 miles
west of Windsor, giving Henley
Royal Regatta its name. Now,
170 years on, the regatta is to
honour another royal consort by
naming a new competition for
girls’ eights the Prince Philip
Challenge Trophy. It will be the
ideal partner for the event for
boys’ eights, created in 1946 as the
Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup.
The future Queen is said to have
fallen in love with Philip when
she watched him rowing as a
cadet at Dartmouth in 1939.It’s a Wonderful Life, the
finest Christmas film (with
apologies to the Muppets),
turned 75 yesterday.
Though nominated for six
Oscars it received only
one technical award for
creating a new way of
filming snow using
foamite, soap and water.Until then, studios simulated falling
snow with cornflakes painted white,
which was too crunchy underfoot
for dialogue. After all, Frank Capra
was making a film, not a cereal.challenging humour
Sorry for that but Christmas is the
time for bad puns, normally from
crackers. In parliament, the king of
painful wordplay is Chris Heaton-
Harris, a Tory MP who has just
been promoted to handle the bits
of the Brexit brief that don’t give
Liz Truss a photo op. Until now
Heaton-Harris was best known for
posting puns on Twitter. “Three
years I studied for my ballet
degree and all I got was a 2:2,” was
one. “Over the past decade, the
price of origami material has risen
tenfold” another. At least he
knows his level. A job advert for
an intern in his office last year had
the requirement: “Must have the
ability to pretend jokes are funny.”next to the throne
Lady Glenconner, former lady-in-
waiting to Princess Margaret,
stoutly defends her boss’s flighty
reputation in her memoirs but
admits she wasn’t great at buying
Christmas presents. One year
Margaret gave another lady-in-
waiting a lavatory brush because
she had noticed on a visit that she
didn’t have one. Glenconner,
below, says her colleague had, in
fact, hidden her brush from
Margaret, feeling it wasn’t up to
the requirements of a royal flush.There’s still time to enter our
Christmas competition. Email
[email protected] with ideas
of letters to Father Christmas
written by famous figures in
2021, justifying why they fall on
the right side of the naughty/
nice balance and what
present they want. I’ve
had dozens of entries, far
too many of which are
from the Duchess of
Sussex, and will print
the best on Monday.