Michael Gove can’t even define extremism – so how are the Tories going to stop it?

To curb the rise in antisemitic and anti-Muslim intolerance, the government has published its long-awaited definition of ‘unacceptable’ speech and conduct. The trouble is, says John Rentoul, nobody quite seems to know what it amounts to…

Announcing the government's new definition of extremism, Michael Gove confirmed ‘From the river to the sea’ – the controversial chant used on pro-Palestinian marches – was acceptable, as it is open to different interpretations (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

The chant I really don’t like is: “Yemen, Yemen, do us proud! Turn another ship around!” The ignorance of calling on a theocratic dictatorship to attack international shipping in the Red Sea, in supposed solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, is provocative.

But that is the point of it. People who feel strongly about a cause have always wanted to shock respectable opinion, and often think that the moral rightness of the underlying cause justifies the offence.

Should it be a crime to chant support for Ansar Allah, the Yemeni movement known as the Houthis, one of the slogans of which is “A curse upon the Jews”? Probably not, for the reason given by Michael Gove, the cabinet minister who is responsible for the government’s new definition of extremism.