Author Archives: Martin Dickson

Democracy and Public Debate

Fake news and hate speech online – much of it spread via the giant tech platforms. Government ministers brazenly lying. Threats to the integrity of our elections through the dissemination of misinformation on social media. National newspapers that are increasingly partisan, and a local press too financially enfeebled to hold politicians to account.

In recent years, the quality of public debate in Britain has deteriorated sharply, thanks to all these factors and the increasing rejection of traditionally accepted norms of behaviour. And this threatens the very fabric of our democracy. We have lost a set of shared truths and facts around which we can base political debate. What can be done to reverse the decline?

A policy paper prepared by an FPC working group, to be debated at Autumn Conference, proposes a bold and distinctly liberal set of initiatives that carefully balance our rights and freedoms, especially the right to free speech, with the need to combat online harms and allow misinformation to be challenged.

Posted in Conference, Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged and | 3 Comments
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  • Edward marsh
    Thanks for the comment Jana. I’m not sure it’s “wrong” per say as the navy has a wide reach of maritime security responsibilities, many I outlined, the ...
  • James Hargrave
    A timely piece given current events. Chronic underinvestment in our energy resilience (especially gas) has left us very exposed, and assuming that isn't solved ...
  • Jana
    This article started well but the conclusion is wrong. Ukraine has successfully forced the surviving elements of the once mighty Russian Black Sea Fleet to retr...
  • cim
    "The Navy’s offensive capability today is also vital for hard diplomacy" Nice euphemism. Certainly puts a new spin on recent Lib Dem calls for "diplomatic ...
  • Simon Marlow
    @Laurence Cox. I'm one of 5M+ British Citizens who live abroad. You've made the same assumption that Ed Davey did back in March ..that a chunk of British citize...