Music festival Glastonbury has been warned to "really check" their lineup of performing artists, as controversy surrounding Irish rap band Kneecap continues to escalate.During the band's Coachella set in California, a screen behind them displayed the message: "Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people."FULL STORY HERE.
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00:00The fast rap group, Kneecap, have hit back at criticism of anti-Israel content featured in their set at a music festival in California,
00:09claiming that statements aren't aggressive. Murdering 20,000 children is, though.
00:15Well, this group, which is known for its strong political statements and support for Palestine,
00:21were responding to criticism from U.S. conservative groups and a TV presenter, Sharon Osbourne,
00:27who accused the rappers of hate speech and urged the U.S. to revoke their working visas.
00:32Well, it all comes as the counter-terror police confirm they're assessing a Kneecap concert video
00:36in which one member of the group appears to shout,
00:39Up Hamas! Up Hezbollah!
00:43Well, let's get the thoughts now of the former Attorney General for England and Wales, Michael Ellis.
00:48Michael, thank you so much for coming into the studio.
00:50An interesting case, this. Some might argue it's their rights to free speech, to say things like that.
00:56They're artists. What do you say to that?
00:57Well, of course, free speech is a very important right, but that's always excluded hate speech.
01:02But that's a general point. I mean, what's fascinating legally about this, of course,
01:06is that Kimmy Badenoch, when she was business secretary, she originally said,
01:11I don't want to give this £15,000 grant to this band.
01:16She made a decision, a ministerial executive decision not to do it.
01:19The court was then appealed to by the band, and the court overruled Kimmy Badenoch as business secretary.
01:28Then the Tory government decided to appeal that decision.
01:32But when the Labour government, the current Labour government, came in, they abandoned that appeal,
01:36which meant that the £15,000 that Kimmy Badenoch had not wanted to give to the band went to them.
01:41And now they find themselves in a situation where, as Tom was saying, the counter-terrorism police are investigating alleged offences because of this band.
01:51So it's because Labour dropped the case that there's now £15,000 has gone to this band to taxpayers' money.
01:57I mean, this band lives to cause outrage.
02:00Yes.
02:00They walk around in balaclavas, they shout about how great the IRA was, and now they're allegedly talking about, well, chanting the benefits of groups that kill Jewish people.
02:16I mean, are we falling into their trap here by simply talking about them?
02:21Because they're stirring up outrage.
02:22They want television shows like this to have conversations like this.
02:28Are we not falling into their trap?
02:29Well, of course, they're not the first band to attention seek.
02:34And so, no doubt, Tom, what you say is right.
02:37And, I mean, personally, for what it's worth, you know, you were talking on the show earlier about the Lib Dems having a £1,000 penalty for people who play music on public transport.
02:45Maybe it should be £2,000 for bands like this.
02:47But that's a different matter.
02:49People have a right to free speech, but they've never had a right.
02:53It's not a new concept to have a right to hate speech.
02:56Now, whatever happened here has not been determined in terms of what they are alleged to have chanted.
03:02I mean, there's a video publicly available.
03:03But what is important, I think, is that we maintain a decency in our public discourse.
03:12And that involves not behaving in such a way that causes palpable offence to minority ethnic groups of any sort.
03:20And isn't the case here more than whether or not it caused offence, because saying up the Conservative Party would cause offence to some people, up the Labour Party to others.
03:27Isn't the point, there, is that these groups are prescribed under UK law and therefore to support them is a criminal offence?
03:33That's right.
03:34Anybody who supports a proscribed group is ostensibly committing an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000.
03:42But whether that's happened here is a matter for the police to investigate.
03:47The principle is, though, that people are allowed and expected to go about their daily business without feeling like they're victimised by hate speech.
04:00And so I think the general principle has to be kept to here.
04:02We've got to have a situation where this sort of thing is intolerable.
04:07We wouldn't allow it with other minority ethnic groups and we shouldn't allow it to happen against the Jewish community.
04:15And now it does seem that this band, not only have they been making these objectionable chants, not only have they been showing up words F Israel on the big screen behind them at the Coachella Festival in the United States,
04:27they're now going to be performing on the Saturday of the Glastonbury Music Festival.
04:32Apparently so.
04:33And look, as we've been saying, and no one would disagree with the fact that they're not the first band.
04:40I mean, the Sex Pistols, many other bands over the years have attracted attention to themselves by being as controversial as they possibly can.
04:48But I do think that it's an obligation, especially after what happened at Coachella, the Coachella Festival in California,
04:54and what Sharon Osborne has been talking about there, that Glastonbury and other festivals here in the UK have a responsibility to, you know,
05:04to really check those bands whose behaviour may cross that line of where you've now got the Metropolitan Police Counterterrorism Branch,
05:13referring them to the internet referral team to assess whether they have committed a criminal offence.
05:21Whether or not they have is up to the police to determine.
05:24But we're here at this moment because of those decisions that have been made.
05:26And I think the Labour government has a lot to answer for here because...
05:30Giving them taxpayers' money.
05:31They basically gave them nearly 15 grand of taxpayers' money.
05:34Yeah.
05:35Yeah.
05:35Yeah.
05:35Okay.