There are, sadly, a lot of arseholes in this world, there are also a lot of football fans who are also arseholes. Such people are annoying but are part of life’s rich tapestry. People get really passionate about football and various team loyalties and rivalries can make people say stupid or offensive things. I no longer follow football but I know that when I was watching football many years ago, derogatory comments and wind ups of the opposing supporters were normal. It was a way of expressing support for one team whilst denigrating another. However, unless personal or physical damage is caused by these arseholes, they should not be imprisoned for mere words.

However, being imprisoned for the use of one word, the word ‘Paki’ is what has happened to a Manchester United fan. Ryan John Healey aged 29 and of Bury, went into a football related rant about Manchester City whilst he was traveling on a tram in the Greater Manchester area. He called the City fans and team ‘shite’ but was gaoled for using the word ‘Paki’ in connection to a derogatory description of Manchester City’s ground and ownership.

Ryan Healey pleaded guilty to a racially-aggravated public order offence at Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court. He was gaoled for five weeks.

This case shows up very starkly the danger that ‘hate speech’ laws pose to Britons. If Mr Healey had gobbed off without using this one particular word ‘Paki’ then he would probably be given a fine or another form of non-custodial sentence that is suitable for this crime. However, if you use a word that has been criminalised by ‘hate speech’ legislation, whether in jest or out of stupidity or because you are drunk, then you lose your liberty. The only difference between Mr Healey getting the appropriate non custodial sentence for being a bit of an arsehole is the use of the word ‘Paki’.

Now I try not to use the word ‘Paki’when I write. This is not because I fear giving offence, but because it is inaccurate. Not all Muslims are Pakistani and not all Pakistanis are Muslims. Mr Healey has been a bit of a fool and an arsehole but it is only in recent years that we have been gaoling those who behave this way. Unfortunately, there is a massive double standard about how such people are treated. If he had gobbed off about how the management of the opposing team were ‘paedophiles’ or ‘bent’ or whatever other insulting words he could have thought of, then I doubt that much would have happened to this man apart from a judicial slap on the wrist. I wonder also whether a person of Asian heritage who used the word ‘Paki’ to describe another Asian person would face a similar punishment to that meted out to Mr Healey? I think that in that scenario, police would not touch the matter with a bargepole.

The banning and criminalisation of words and the incarceration of those who utter them, is the sort of thing that we expect to see in a theocracy or some oppressive dictatorship. It is not something that should be happening in the United Kingdom, a nation which once led the way in freedoms such as freedom of speech. It is sadly ironic that it was from thinkers and activists from the United Kingdom that the founding fathers of the United States of America that came the intellectual arguments for allowing complete freedom of speech. Now in Britain, the country that planted the seeds of freedom in the USA, freedom of speech no longer exists.

Everybody no matter their skin tone or gender or sexuality has the right to travel around the nation and not get punched in the face by some idiot because an assault is an assault no matter who is it is done to and done by. But I believe that it is perfectly possible for a society such as ours to protect everyone not just minorities from assault without throwing away really important freedoms such as that of freedom of speech. Even, as in this case, when the person in question chooses to use that right to speak a load of rubbish.