Can we delete the term ‘hate speech’ from the debate over the role of the law in what people can and cannot say publicly? It only confuses that debate because of its lack of definition and its very vagueness poses the risk of further restrictions on freedom of speech.

The starting point in this area of the law is the fact that any incitement to violence against individual members of the community or groups in the community is and always has been at common law a criminal offence.