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Should race hate tweeter Lucy Connolly be freed? LBC callers deliver their verdict
May 17, 2025
The wife of a former Conservative councillor who was jailed for 31 months after an online rant about migrants on the day of the Southport attacks is appealing against her sentence.
Should she be freed early? LBC callers to Tom Swarbrick's show deliver their verdict:
00:00 Caller Sarah doesn't feel sorry for the prisoner, she feels sorry for her daughter.
02:59 Caller Joseph insists Connolly's tweet was not something trivial.
05:43 Caller Yusef believes that if a Muslim had said what Connolly had said, there would be no question of what the reaction would be.
07:54 Caller Joel thinks the debate is crazy and doesn't believe Connolly should be in prison at all.
Lucy Connolly tweeted on July 29: "Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care... if that makes me racist so be it."
The post followed three girls being stabbed and killed at a holiday club in Southport on July 29, sparking nationwide unrest.
It was viewed 310,000 times in three-and-a-half hours before Connolly deleted it.
Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice, former Tory councillor Ray Connolly, Lucy's husband, said:
"It's 279 days now my daughter's been without her mother. I'm hoping that within a week she'll be home and this will come to a positive conclusion. Can't really say no more than that.
"It's a shame I didn't get a result today but we'll soon know in the next few days. Got to get home now to my daughter."
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0:00
Just two points. One, I think if we were to rewind back to the time when all the riots were going on, every call would be this is totally reasonable, totally fair
0:10
And it's just very much human nature, passage of time. We've all become a bit sort of chilled about it
0:15
And now this woman has got sort of a very strong following saying this is outrageously harsh
0:21
The second point I wanted to make is the idea about the fact that she's a mother, whenever that's raised as some sort of an argument
0:28
And I'm always baffled because I'm a mum and I don't look on her and think, oh, goodness me, she should be back with her children
0:37
Instead, I think, God, poor kids. You know, they had a mother who was doing that and behaving like that
0:45
And now she's leveraging her children to get out of punishment. I find it quite shocking, actually
0:53
I sometimes, yeah, I see what you mean. I sometimes think, aren't your children the reason why you wouldn't do this in the first place
1:02
Because you're going to be massively punished for it. But, you know, isn't the fact that you're a mum one of the reasons that would stop you from writing such genuinely vile and horrible things on social media
1:12
Because you're a mum and one day your child might read it and go, oh, my God
1:17
Yes. So, Tom, that leads me to believe that this wasn't something that she, oh, you know, like that brain fart
1:23
But it's something, I mean, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt, presuming that she has full capacity
1:29
So presuming she's got full capacity, she weighs up the fact that she's a mother
1:33
and yet still posts something as abhorrent as that. And I believe it's because she genuinely thinks it
1:41
and is genuinely, you know, given half a chance, a dangerous person
1:46
I mean, I'm not saying she's going to go out and do anything, but she's harboring horrible, dangerous views
1:52
And I think punishment fits the crime. And I think leveraging the children argument to me, all that indicates is my word. Like what? Poor children
2:03
The thing is, if you have. Yeah, again, maybe I'm splitting hairs again, Sarah. But if you have a view that says mass deportation now set fire to all the hotels, you can have that view with without it being punished because it can just exist in your head
2:20
the issue for her is she said it out loud yeah yeah
2:24
I guess the point I'm making badly is we don't punish people for
2:32
just having views I don't want to live in a country that punishes people
2:36
for having views no way, me neither but she was obviously so
2:41
impassioned by that view that wanted to actually broadcast it and even though it was possibly to fewer people than other accounts have on Twitter it doesn matter Sarah thank you Joseph in Croydon Joseph
2:56
Oh, hi. Hi. How are you? Yeah, good, sir. Yeah, basically, I want to say, I mean
3:01
reason should be deterrent more than a punishment to deter people. And this woman, if you exchange her for an immigrant
3:08
if an immigrant did the same as her and said, go and burn white people's houses, how do people feel
3:15
Are they going to react the same? You know what I mean? And what she did is not something small
3:20
Lots of people could have died because of her words. You know what I mean
3:26
So, basically, it's not little. She deserves even more for me. I agree
3:32
I mean, I guess it's the difference between did it actually incite people to do it or didn't it
3:37
And it's very hard to prove that. But I guess the point is still the same. At the moment at which she tweeted
3:41
it's very hard to say, you didn't mean this, did you? and she said, no, I didn't mean it at all
3:46
in which case, why did you write it down and send it out for the world to see? That's it. It's the action that comes after that
3:53
It's not what you meant or you didn't mean. It doesn't matter. I guess it is, going back to the driving ogy
4:00
the rush of blood that someone may have had that caused them to drive at 60 miles an hour in a 30
4:05
crash the car and kill people, of course they didn't intend to kill anybody, but they should have resisted the rush of blood
4:12
to their heads to speed at 60 and a 30. Of course, and there should be punishment to deter other people not to do the same
4:19
And punishment to this degree? Yeah. Punishment to this degree, yeah. If you deter people, you're going to save other people
4:25
If there is lenient punishment, other people will do it. It's not just with this woman, it's any other crimes
4:31
Now it's very lenient. But now you're coming back to the, and I'm grateful to you for it
4:35
you're coming back to the broader argument that Lord Young was making about other sentences too
4:40
And I get this on text. if the aim is deterrent through these big sentences
4:45
for people tweeting this stuff, as Mackie says, what is the deterrent
4:49
for keeping very severe images of child sexual abuse if there are people who have those images
4:55
who aren't going to prison? It's a harsh punishment, even for those people
5:01
Why would you keep pictures of children? Why? Yeah, no, I agree
5:07
So if we're saying that part of the reason why the sentencing is so long
5:10
is because it acts as a deterrent for people to do really, say really awful things
5:14
Where is the deterrent to people if people aren't, as a matter of course, going to prison
5:19
for having vile images of child sex abuse on their phone? Because they're not
5:25
And I find that bizarre. Terrifying, actually. It is. So there should be even harsher punishment
5:31
I don't know, longer sentences. They deserve it. 10, 20 years. That's deterrent
5:36
If you go for one year and go to do a course or something that not deterrent No Joseph thank you Youssef the first time caller And Chigwell Youssef Hi how are you
5:47
I just wanted to say, what's the difference between a Muslim making these remarks
5:53
compared to a white national that lives in the UK, compared to the Muslim that lives in the UK
6:00
I think if a Muslim said this, everyone would be calling him a terrorist
6:04
Because he's a white person, and no one has used the word terrorist. And I feel like there should be equal punishment for both
6:15
There shouldn't be, you know, different rules for one race and a different rule for another race or religion
6:24
I think it should be done under the terror. Hang on a second. We're mixing up a lot of different things here
6:28
which is going to make your overall point not particularly laser-focused. because Islam is not an ethnicity
6:37
It's not a race. It's a religion. Sure, sure. But say, for instance
6:44
she's a Christian, right? And she doesn't really follow Christianity and there's a Muslim that doesn't really follow Islam
6:51
But the Muslim that doesn't really follow Islam says the same thing
6:56
Everyone would be calling him a terrorist, even though he might not even follow Islam
7:01
or follow any of the teachings of Islam, but just done it out of anger, right
7:05
So there would be a terrorist. Not every asylum seeker is a Muslim
7:13
It's not about that. It's about the action, right? So the lady said burn down the hotel
7:18
So say if a Muslim said burn down that hotel, but he doesn't follow Islam
7:25
say if the Christian lady doesn't follow Christianity, but there would be an attachment of terrorists
7:30
to the Muslim person that said it, right? By whom? By people
7:34
By the public, yeah. Possibly. I mean, possibly. You're right. Possibly. I don't think... I mean, there was a discussion at the time
7:41
about whether to use terror legislation to punish people and that, I think, rightly wasn't used in a lot of these cases
7:49
because it doesn't go so far as to be terrorism. You said thank you. Joel's the first-time caller in Hemel Hempstead
7:55
Joel. Hello, how are you doing? Good, sir. Thank you. Yeah, I just I just believe it's pretty crazy that we're even asking the question over whether she should be in prison or not, as I don't think she should be at all in prison. Why? Because it's just a tweet. It's just somebody's thought. It's not just in the moment. It's not just. Yeah, yeah, I think it is
8:20
But again, to go back to the ogy that has been used a lot, it's like saying, well, I was just doing 60 in a 30 when the car crashed into the wall
8:30
Yeah I mean I think in many ways at the time I just robbed the shop I just robbed it It just a shop robbing It just a straightforward shop robber
8:39
Come on, John. I get your point, but I'm just saying at the time that I heard about the incident
8:45
I was very angry. I mean, I'm a father, I've got kids. And I was thinking, wow
8:51
These young girls have been stabbed by some lunatic. And I was annoyed. I was like..
8:57
Of course. Oh, I'd like to go out and protest. I never did protest, actually, but I felt annoyed. I felt angry
9:04
And I could well have done a tweet like that if I was on Twitter. I mean, I'm not particularly on Twitter
9:09
You could well have done a tweet that talks about mass deportation, setting fire to all the effing hotels, full of the B words, for all I care
9:16
If that makes me a racist, so be it. You could see yourself doing that? Maybe not exactly those words
9:22
What would you like to have said? Let's go for it. What would you like to have said, but keep it, you know, don't swear
9:27
well i don't know i'd have to think about it i can't exactly say now on air exactly what i would
9:33
have said without thinking about it but i'm just saying i was very annoyed sum up the anger that
9:37
you felt as everybody felt about that appalling atrocity um sum up to what you would have said at
9:43
the time i really don't know but i mean i'm just saying that i could have said things that were
9:51
were racially motivated. I could have said something like, we need to deport all these illegal immigrants or whatever
10:00
I mean, I don't know what I would have said. Right, OK, well, just... Joel, hang on a second
10:04
Joel, Joel, Joel, Joel, Joel, Joel. The reason you could have said that
10:08
I'm going to be very generous here, but the reason you could have said that is that you'd fallen for the misinformation
10:12
that was doing the rounds at the time about who perpetrated this attack. It was not an illegal immigrant
10:17
No, but was it a British person? Yes, they were born in Britain. does that make them British
10:24
Well, yes. I mean, on their passport, yes. If I went with my wife to China
10:30
and I'm British, my wife's British, if I went to China and had a child
10:35
would that child be Chinese? It depends on the laws in China about citizenship
10:41
Normally, if someone is born in a country... I think you'd look at that child and say, that child is not Chinese
10:46
that child is British, born in China. So I'd imagine that's what the vast majority of people would say
10:52
But now, John, now you're engaging in a kind of ethno-nationalism here, which is you have..
10:57
No, no, no, no, no, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, I just tweeted, I just crashed the car. What you're doing is you're saying you have to look a certain way to be British
11:05
and the reality of that is not true. I'm just saying that's what most people would say
11:10
In my ogy, that's what most people would say. They'd say that's a British person born in China
11:14
So I'm just saying that I don't agree that there was misinformation
11:18
information obviously i mean there's so much misinformation online isn't there about all sorts of things that's a good thing you didn't tweet isn't it
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