Lord Hanson of Flint
Main Page: Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Hanson of Flint's debates with the Cabinet Office
(9 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberMy hon. Friend makes an important point. We can ban the preachers, but we must also look at their use of media—not just social media, but some individual television channels—and make sure that where messages endorse extremism and violence, we have a way of stopping them. This is a very important issue.
On the day before this terrible incident, a neo-Nazi was convicted of a machete attack on a random individual in a supermarket in Mold in my constituency—in broad daylight on the streets of north Wales. He had been radicalised by internet content, which is equally as bad as internet radicalisation that leads to the Islamic attacks such as happened this week. I welcome what the Prime Minister said, but will he genuinely look, with the internet providers, at how we can stop that type of information being brought into people’s bedrooms from where lone wolves can use it to warp their approach to life?
I will certainly do that. We have acted together with the Internet Watch Foundation to take down many pages of extremism. The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point. The arguments about violent and non-violent extremism also apply to the extreme right. This House would never condone the idea that we should tolerate the National Front but go after Combat 18. We would never do that when it comes to fascism, so we should not do it when it comes to Islamist fascism either.