What’s extremism?

Peers and MPs probe government’s new definition

Last Thursday, the government published a new definition of extremism. Quick off the mark, peers and MPs from parliament’s joint committee on human rights took oral evidence about it yesterday from:

• Dame Sara Khan, independent adviser for social cohesion and resilience at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities;

• Ruth Ehrlich, head of policy and campaigns at Liberty; and

• me.

The meeting, which you can see in full by clicking the start button above, was chaired by Joanna Cherry KC MP.

I’m not suggesting that all my readers will want to spend nearly an hour and a half watching us trying to answer the committee’s questions. But because of the time I spent preparing for the session yesterday and giving evidence — not to mention time spent recording interviews for next week’s farewell edition of Law in Action — I have not managed to write a substantive piece for publication today.

I hope this recording will make up for it.