This is a significant event in the Shrieval calendar, reflecting the core High Sheriff remit to support the judicial services. It was therefore a great honour to welcome esteemed retired former Justice of the Supreme Court, Lord Jonathan Sumption OBE to make this year’s address. In front of a packed audience at the Town Hall in Hereford, Lord Sumption, who was accompanied by his wife Teresa, presented a 50 minute lecture, ‘Where should free speech end?’, a truly thought provoking and topical subject which had the audience captivated. The evening was hosted by Daniel Pearce Higgins KC, Retired Circuit Judge and former honorary recorder of Hereford, and Helen Bowden, Herefordshire High Sheriff.

Lord Sumption gave some history of how the concept of free speech developed. No one has exclusive access to truth. Truth and wisdom are dynamic concepts always subject to review. Further he emphasised that the free exchange of ideas and information was a fundamental requirement for a fully functioning democracy. He expressed his concern at the current threats to that freedom and need for rational discussion, such as the decline in the belief in objective truth and the claim, particularly by minority groups, of the right to curb the expression of views which they find offensive. Coupled with this were the pressures to confirm by social media and otherwise, which limited the free expression of controversial views and led to unhealthy self-censorship. Ultimately the only justified limit to free speech he suggested is that identified by John Stuart Mill 150 years ago, which is speech that is coercive because it can lead to physical harm. In that connection it is necessary to consider both content of what is said and the circumstances in which it is uttered.