Police forces should stop investigating people who say stupid things on social media, a rising star Labour MP has said.Jonathan Hinder, a former police inspector and now MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, said it was time for more guidance to police on whether to investigate foolish comments on social media.It comes amid concern over the jailing of Lucy Connolly for intemperate remarks on Twitter in the wake of last year's riots following the Southport murders of three young girls.Hinder - a member of the 'blue Labour' group of MPs - said: "We've got to be clear about where we think people are acting in a way that we don't like, and where that goes into what we want to be a police matter."At the moment the threshold has probably been set a little bit too low. And we're asking police to get involved with people who are being a bit of an a***, but probably don't need the police knocking."Listen to Chopper's Political Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or watch it on GB News' YouTube channel
00:00And then we also have this other area, which is the kind of non-crime stuff, which has increased over the years.
00:06Which is nuts, right?
00:07Stop policing Twitter, actually.
00:09Well, that's a part of it.
00:11That's a part of it.
00:11Oh, yeah.
00:12It's to stop going after people for tweets.
00:15Well, I think police need to make sure they've got their priorities right.
00:17And I think there have been some particularly egregious examples of, you know, big overreach in that regard.
00:22And I think the police would say, well, some of our laws probably do need updating on this.
00:26They're not fit for the Internet age.
00:28But it's not just that, you know, it's about mental health cases, about children missing from care homes.
00:32That's what I spent a lot of my career dealing with.
00:34So we've got to be kind of, we've got to be kind of having this discussion.
00:39I feel sorry.
00:39The police, because when they're knocking on doors with parents over a WhatsApp group, you know, and they cause a big round of press, undermines trust in the police.
00:47I think we've got to be clear this way.
00:48I'll sum it up.
00:49We've got to be clear about where we think people are acting in a way that we don't like.
00:54Can I say they're being a bit of an arse on your podcast?
00:57The word arse is acceptable.
00:58Yeah.
01:00And where that goes into what we want to be a police matter.
01:04And I think at the moment, the threshold has probably been set a little bit too low.
01:08And we're asking police to get involved with people who are being a bit of an arse, but probably don't need the police knocking at them.
01:13And stop doing that.
01:14I mean, even Keir Starmer talked about this back when he was DPP, Director of Public Prosecutions.
01:18He said people do silly, silly tweets and are a bit drunk.
01:22Let's let them delete it the next day and move on.
01:24I think there's a lot to be said for that.
01:25I think it's happened.
01:26There's a woman being jailed.
01:27I mean, famously, of course, about with some extremely, I always say inflammatory remarks on Twitter, but she regretted them.
01:33But despite being put in prison for it.
01:35There's always going to be kind of contested discussion about where that line should be.
01:40But yeah, as I say, I think we need to make sure it's a little bit higher.
