Lucy Connolly finally returns home to her family today. At last. Her punishment was harsher than the sentences handed down for bricks thrown at police or actual rioting. At that time, after Southport, Keir Starmer branded all protesters ‘far-right’ and called for “fast-track prosecutions”. Days later, Lucy was charged with stirring up racial hatred - an offence that doesn’t even require intent to incite violence. Why exactly did the Attorney General think that was in the public interest? Meanwhile, former Labour councillor Ricky Jones called for protestors to have their throats slit. Charged with encouraging violent disorder, he pleaded not guilty and was acquitted by a jury who saw his words as a disgusting remark made in the heat of the moment, not a call to action. Juries are a cornerstone of justice, but we shouldn’t have to rely on them to protect basic freedoms. Protecting people from words should not be given greater weight in law than public safety. If the law does this, then the law itself is broken – and it’s time Parliament looked again at the Public Order Act.