Long before becoming an MP, as a practising lawyer, the issue of hate crime came across my desk many times. It is abhorrent when someone is targeted because of their actual or perceived race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or disability, it is a criminal offence, and the law provides additional penalties for such crimes.
In both my role as Solicitor General and as Justice Secretary, I continued my work to tackle this issue, encouraging victims to come forward and report these hate crimes. I was glad to see that following my campaign, we saw record levels of convictions. One incident of hate crime is one too many and those responsible need to be brought to justice.
It is clear however that we still have a lot of work to do, and over the past week, this has been highlighted in the national press with a Labour MP being suspended over an investigation into a letter she wrote. Sadly, on a local level, as we approach the elections, there have also been some worrying posts and comments circulating on social media, which are completely unacceptable.
The people who are standing as candidates here in South Swindon, and across the country, are doing a great public service and councillors and candidates are working hard to engage with as many voters as possible ahead of the local elections. However, they should not have to experience abuse, or threats of any harmful behaviour, simply because of who they are, what they look like, or their background.
I would like to thank all those local candidates who are standing here in South Swindon and urge all candidates and votes to treat everyone with respect at this time, and to continue to engage in positive, constructive conversation and debates, and make local democracy a welcoming environment for everyone.
We all need to do better to end racism, sometimes that means tackling our own racial biases, and sometimes that means confronting others in our friendship groups, families, and communities. There is no place for discrimination in our society.
It was great to be back at The Friends Meeting House in Eastcott Hill last Friday, to see friends from the Swindon Philosophical Society, which is an active and long-established group. I spoke at the event about the impact of artificial intelligence on the ethics of justice.
There are very good reasons why we should be suspicious of change when it comes to the law, particularly the danger of change for change’s sake. The importance of legal memory, precedent and tradition should not be underestimated. On the contrary, it should be celebrated. With continuity comes certainty, and certainty is good for the rule of law.
But this, however, is not the full picture. Laws and their practice that do not change at all will ossify and either become irrelevant, illogical, or inimical to the society that they should be designed to serve.
Nowhere is this change more marked than in the field of Artificial or Machine Intelligence, which is increasingly grabbing the attention of policymakers and practitioners as the pace of change quickens.
AI is already a fact of life in many fields of activity, and justice is certainly one of them. You can read the full talk on my website here: https://www.robertbuckland.co.uk/news/artificial-intelligence-and-digitalisation-new-hope-justice-or-new-threat-0
Finally, my charity of the week is Friends of the Railway Path, a group of wonderful local people who work to promote, improve, and develop the Coate to Marlborough Railway Path. The Friends support the diversity of the area by maintaining and improving habitats along the path, and its surrounds, helping attract people to the area, and encouraging a fuller appreciation of its history, agriculture, ecology, culture, and geology. You can find out more about this excellent local charity on their website here http://friendsofthepath.org.uk/about/index.html Why not join them and help to make a difference to the path, which is a gateway to the Marlborough Downs, the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and to “Jefferies’ Land”.
