0:00:00.472,0:00:02.463
I'd like to start, if I may,

0:00:02.463,0:00:05.327
with the story of the Paisley snail.

0:00:05.327,0:00:08.525
On the evening of the 26th of August, 1928,

0:00:08.525,0:00:10.483
May Donoghue took a train from Glasgow

0:00:10.483,0:00:13.245
to the town of Paisley, seven miles east of the city,

0:00:13.245,0:00:15.697
and there at the Wellmeadow Café,

0:00:15.697,0:00:18.869
she had a Scot's ice cream float,

0:00:18.869,0:00:20.347
a mix of ice cream and ginger beer

0:00:20.347,0:00:22.609
bought for her by a friend.

0:00:22.609,0:00:24.964
The ginger beer came in a brown, opaque bottle

0:00:24.964,0:00:28.827
labeled "D. Stevenson, Glen Lane, Paisley."

0:00:28.827,0:00:30.903
She drank some of the ice cream float,

0:00:30.903,0:00:32.614
but as the remaining ginger beer was poured

0:00:32.614,0:00:34.288
into her tumbler,

0:00:34.288,0:00:36.142
a decomposed snail

0:00:36.142,0:00:39.385
floated to the surface of her glass.

0:00:39.385,0:00:40.713
Three days later, she was admitted

0:00:40.713,0:00:42.045
to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary

0:00:42.045,0:00:44.414
and diagnosed with severe gastroenteritis

0:00:44.414,0:00:46.583
and shock.

0:00:46.583,0:00:49.528
The case of Donoghue v. Stevenson that followed

0:00:49.528,0:00:52.045
set a very important legal precedent:

0:00:52.045,0:00:53.935
Stevenson, the manufacturer of the ginger beer,

0:00:53.935,0:00:56.174
was held to have a clear duty of care

0:00:56.174,0:00:58.160
towards May Donoghue,

0:00:58.160,0:01:00.277
even though there was no contract between them,

0:01:00.277,0:01:03.014
and, indeed, she hadn't even bought the drink.

0:01:03.014,0:01:05.974
One of the judges, Lord Atkin, described it like this:

0:01:05.974,0:01:09.038
you must take care to avoid acts or omissions

0:01:09.038,0:01:11.083
which you can reasonably foresee

0:01:11.083,0:01:14.273
would be likely to injure your neighbor.

0:01:14.273,0:01:16.631
Indeed, one wonders that without a duty of care,

0:01:16.631,0:01:18.455
how many of people would have had to suffer

0:01:18.455,0:01:22.081
from gastroenteritis before Stevenson[br]eventually went out of business.

0:01:22.081,0:01:24.252
Now please hang on to that Paisley snail story,

0:01:24.252,0:01:27.239
because it's an important principle.

0:01:27.239,0:01:30.287
Last year, the Hansard Society,[br]a nonpartisan charity

0:01:30.287,0:01:32.161
which seeks to strengthen parliamentary democracy

0:01:32.161,0:01:35.321
and encourage greater public involvement in politics

0:01:35.321,0:01:37.909
published, along side their annual audit

0:01:37.909,0:01:40.828
of political engagement, an additional section

0:01:40.828,0:01:43.827
devoted entirely to politics and the media.

0:01:43.827,0:01:45.972
Here are a couple of rather depressing observations

0:01:45.972,0:01:48.303
from that survey.

0:01:48.303,0:01:50.375
Tabloid newspapers do not appear

0:01:50.375,0:01:53.394
to advance the political citizenship of their readers,

0:01:53.394,0:01:54.935
relative even to those

0:01:54.935,0:01:58.009
who read no newspapers whatsoever.

0:01:58.009,0:02:01.323
Tabloid-only readers are twice as likely to agree

0:02:01.323,0:02:03.189
with a negative view of politics

0:02:03.189,0:02:05.702
than readers of no newspapers.

0:02:05.702,0:02:07.618
They're not just less politically engaged.

0:02:07.618,0:02:10.070
They are consuming media that reinforces

0:02:10.070,0:02:11.798
their negative evaluation of politics,

0:02:11.798,0:02:14.886
thereby contributing to a fatalistic and cynical

0:02:14.886,0:02:18.206
attitude to democracy and their own role within it.

0:02:18.206,0:02:20.150
Little wonder that the report concluded that

0:02:20.150,0:02:23.448
in this respect, the press, particularly the tabloids,

0:02:23.448,0:02:25.648
appear not to be living up to the importance

0:02:25.648,0:02:28.684
of their role in our democracy.

0:02:28.684,0:02:30.513
Now I doubt if anyone in this room would seriously

0:02:30.513,0:02:32.297
challenge that view.

0:02:32.297,0:02:34.713
But if Hansard are right, and they usually are,

0:02:34.713,0:02:36.689
then we've got a very serious problem on our hands,

0:02:36.689,0:02:38.817
and it's one that I'd like to spend the next 10 minutes

0:02:38.817,0:02:41.385
focusing upon.

0:02:41.385,0:02:43.237
Since the Paisley snail,

0:02:43.237,0:02:45.763
and especially over the past decade or so,

0:02:45.763,0:02:47.343
a great deal of thinking has been developed

0:02:47.343,0:02:49.386
around the notion of a duty of care

0:02:49.386,0:02:51.817
as it relates to a number of aspects of civil society.

0:02:51.817,0:02:54.561
Generally a duty of care arises when one individual

0:02:54.561,0:02:57.449
or a group of individuals undertakes an activity

0:02:57.449,0:02:59.657
which has the potential to cause harm to another,

0:02:59.657,0:03:02.586
either physically, mentally, or economically.

0:03:02.586,0:03:04.919
This is principally focused on obvious areas,

0:03:04.919,0:03:08.193
such as our empathetic response[br]to children and young people,

0:03:08.193,0:03:10.718
to our service personnel, and[br]to the elderly and infirm.

0:03:10.718,0:03:14.757
It is seldom, if ever, extended[br]to equally important arguments

0:03:14.757,0:03:19.160
around the fragility of our[br]present system of government,

0:03:19.160,0:03:22.807
to the notion that honesty, accuracy, and impartiality

0:03:22.807,0:03:24.769
are fundamental to the process of building

0:03:24.769,0:03:26.559
and embedding an informed,

0:03:26.559,0:03:29.453
participatory democracy.

0:03:29.453,0:03:30.889
And the more you think about it,

0:03:30.889,0:03:32.767
the stranger that is.

0:03:32.767,0:03:34.337
A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure

0:03:34.337,0:03:35.967
of opening a brand new school

0:03:35.967,0:03:37.507
in the northeast of England.

0:03:37.507,0:03:41.200
It had been renamed by its pupils as Academy 360.

0:03:41.200,0:03:42.775
As I walked through their impressive,

0:03:42.775,0:03:44.350
glass-covered atrium,

0:03:44.350,0:03:46.183
in front of me, emblazoned on the wall

0:03:46.183,0:03:47.839
in letters of fire

0:03:47.839,0:03:50.863
was Marcus Aurelius's famous injunction:

0:03:50.863,0:03:53.487
if it's not true, don't say it,

0:03:53.487,0:03:56.879
if it's not right, don't do it.

0:03:56.879,0:03:58.558
The head teacher saw me staring at it,

0:03:58.558,0:04:01.967
and he said, "Oh, that's our school motto."

0:04:01.967,0:04:03.247
On the train back to London,

0:04:03.247,0:04:05.047
I couldn't get it out of my mind.

0:04:05.047,0:04:07.384
I kept thinking, can it really have taken us

0:04:07.384,0:04:09.886
over 2,000 years to come to terms

0:04:09.886,0:04:11.767
with that simple notion

0:04:11.767,0:04:14.673
as being our minimum expectation of each other?

0:04:14.673,0:04:17.158
Isn't it time that we develop this concept

0:04:17.158,0:04:19.103
of a duty of care

0:04:19.103,0:04:21.145
and extended it to include a care

0:04:21.145,0:04:24.485
for our shared but increasingly[br]endangered democratic values?

0:04:24.485,0:04:26.589
After all, the absence of a duty of care

0:04:26.589,0:04:28.102
within many professions

0:04:28.102,0:04:30.435
can all too easily amount to[br]accusations of negligence,

0:04:30.435,0:04:33.773
and that being the case, can we be[br]really comfortable with the thought

0:04:33.773,0:04:35.813
that we're in effect being negligent

0:04:35.813,0:04:38.773
in respect of the health of our own societies

0:04:38.773,0:04:41.585
and the values that necessarily underpin them?

0:04:41.585,0:04:44.103
Could anyone honestly suggest, on the evidence,

0:04:44.103,0:04:47.805
that the same media which[br]Hansard so roundly condemned

0:04:47.805,0:04:51.169
have taken sufficient care to avoid behaving

0:04:51.169,0:04:54.349
in ways which they could reasonably have foreseen

0:04:54.349,0:04:56.450
would be likely to undermine or even damage

0:04:56.450,0:05:00.209
our inherently fragile democratic settlement.

0:05:00.209,0:05:01.645
Now there will be those who will argue

0:05:01.645,0:05:03.071
that this could all too easily drift into a form

0:05:03.071,0:05:05.270
of censorship, albeit self-censorship,

0:05:05.270,0:05:07.103
but I don't buy that argument.

0:05:07.103,0:05:09.087
It has to be possible

0:05:09.087,0:05:11.293
to balance freedom of expression

0:05:11.293,0:05:14.685
with wider moral and social responsibilities.

0:05:14.685,0:05:16.397
Let me explain why by taking the example

0:05:16.397,0:05:19.090
from my own career as a filmmaker.

0:05:19.090,0:05:21.006
Throughout that career, I never accepted

0:05:21.006,0:05:22.411
that a filmmaker should set about putting

0:05:22.411,0:05:25.245
their own work outside or above what he or she

0:05:25.245,0:05:27.965
believed to be a decent set of values

0:05:27.965,0:05:31.093
for their own life, their own family,

0:05:31.093,0:05:34.597
and the future of the society in which we all live.

0:05:34.597,0:05:36.063
I'd go further.

0:05:36.063,0:05:38.525
A responsible filmmaker should[br]never devalue their work

0:05:38.525,0:05:41.086
to a point at which it becomes less than true

0:05:41.086,0:05:44.730
to the world they themselves wish to inhabit.

0:05:44.730,0:05:47.685
As I see it, filmmakers, journalists, even bloggers

0:05:47.685,0:05:50.840
are all required to face up to the social expectations

0:05:50.840,0:05:54.411
that come with combining the[br]intrinsic power of their medium

0:05:54.411,0:05:57.830
with their well-honed professional skills.

0:05:57.830,0:06:00.702
Obviously this is not a mandated duty,

0:06:00.702,0:06:03.023
but for the gifted filmmaker[br]and the responsible journalist

0:06:03.023,0:06:04.655
or even the blogger it strikes me as being

0:06:04.655,0:06:06.989
utterly inescapable.

0:06:06.989,0:06:09.618
We should always remember that our notion

0:06:09.618,0:06:12.525
of individual freedom and[br]its partner, creative freedom,

0:06:12.525,0:06:14.320
is comparatively new

0:06:14.320,0:06:16.597
in the history of Western ideas,

0:06:16.597,0:06:18.530
and for that reason, it's often undervalued

0:06:18.530,0:06:20.693
and can be very quickly undermined.

0:06:20.693,0:06:23.029
It's a prize easily lost,

0:06:23.029,0:06:24.684
and once lost, once surrendered,

0:06:24.684,0:06:28.097
it can prove very, very hard to reclaim.

0:06:28.097,0:06:29.926
And its first line of defense

0:06:29.926,0:06:32.002
has to be our own standards,

0:06:32.002,0:06:36.014
not those enforced on us by a censor or legislation,

0:06:36.014,0:06:37.685
our own standards and our own integrity.

0:06:37.685,0:06:39.740
Our integrity as we deal with those

0:06:39.740,0:06:41.052
with whom we work

0:06:41.052,0:06:44.714
and our own standards as we operate within society.

0:06:44.714,0:06:46.292
And these standards of ours

0:06:46.292,0:06:49.727
need to be all of a piece with[br]a sustainable social agenda.

0:06:49.727,0:06:51.423
They're part of a collective responsibility,

0:06:51.423,0:06:53.215
the responsibility of the artist or the journalist

0:06:53.215,0:06:56.127
to deal with the world as it really is,

0:06:56.127,0:06:58.208
and this, in turn, must go hand in hand

0:06:58.208,0:07:01.024
with the responsibility of those governing society

0:07:01.024,0:07:03.211
to also face up to that world,

0:07:03.211,0:07:05.248
and not to be tempted to misappropriate

0:07:05.248,0:07:07.808
the causes of its ills.

0:07:07.808,0:07:10.561
Yet, as has become strikingly clear

0:07:10.561,0:07:12.583
over the last couple of years,

0:07:12.583,0:07:14.663
such responsibility has to a very great extent

0:07:14.663,0:07:17.768
been abrogated by large sections of the media,

0:07:17.768,0:07:19.616
and as a consequence, across the Western world,

0:07:19.616,0:07:23.007
the over-simplistic policies of the parties of protests

0:07:23.007,0:07:25.208
and their appeal to a largely disillusioned,

0:07:25.208,0:07:26.904
older demographic,

0:07:26.904,0:07:29.039
along with the apathy and obsession with the trivial

0:07:29.039,0:07:30.887
that typifies at least some of the young,

0:07:30.887,0:07:33.047
taken together, these and other similarly

0:07:33.047,0:07:34.872
contemporary aberrations

0:07:34.872,0:07:36.904
are threatening to squeeze the life

0:07:36.904,0:07:40.648
out of active, informed debate and engagement,

0:07:40.648,0:07:43.096
and I stress active.

0:07:43.096,0:07:45.512
The most ardent of libertarians might argue

0:07:45.512,0:07:48.583
that Donoghue v. Stevenson should[br]have been thrown out of court

0:07:48.583,0:07:50.440
and that Stevenson would eventually[br]have gone out of business

0:07:50.440,0:07:53.903
if he'd continued to sell ginger beer with snails in it.

0:07:53.903,0:07:57.255
But most of us, I think, accept some small role

0:07:57.255,0:08:00.579
for the state to enforce a duty of care,

0:08:00.579,0:08:03.039
and the key word here is reasonable.

0:08:03.039,0:08:06.080
Judges must ask, did they take reasonable care

0:08:06.080,0:08:08.200
and could they have reasonably foreseen

0:08:08.200,0:08:10.399
the consequences of their actions?

0:08:10.399,0:08:13.119
Far from signifying overbearing state power,

0:08:13.119,0:08:16.997
it's that small common sense test of reasonableness

0:08:16.997,0:08:19.379
that I'd like us to apply to those in the media

0:08:19.379,0:08:21.758
who, after all, set the tone and the content

0:08:21.758,0:08:25.046
for much of our democratic discourse.

0:08:25.046,0:08:27.334
Democracy, in order to work, requires that

0:08:27.334,0:08:30.805
reasonable men and women take[br]the time to understand and debate

0:08:30.805,0:08:33.152
difficult, sometimes complex issues,

0:08:33.152,0:08:35.026
and they do so in an atmosphere which strives

0:08:35.026,0:08:37.752
for the type of understanding that leads to,

0:08:37.752,0:08:39.865
if not agreement, then at least a productive

0:08:39.865,0:08:42.232
and workable compromise.

0:08:42.232,0:08:44.450
Politics is about choices,

0:08:44.450,0:08:48.441
and within those choices, politics is about priorities.

0:08:48.441,0:08:50.979
It's about reconciling conflicting preferences

0:08:50.979,0:08:56.396
wherever and whenever possibly based on fact.

0:08:56.396,0:08:58.529
But if the facts themselves are distorted,

0:08:58.529,0:09:02.313
the resolutions are likely only[br]to create further conflict,

0:09:02.313,0:09:04.478
with all the stresses and strains on society

0:09:04.478,0:09:06.816
that inevitably follow.

0:09:06.816,0:09:08.593
The media have to decide:

0:09:08.593,0:09:11.614
do they see their role as being to inflame

0:09:11.614,0:09:14.129
or to inform?

0:09:14.129,0:09:16.790
Because in the end, it comes down to a combination

0:09:16.790,0:09:19.882
of trust and leadership.

0:09:19.882,0:09:22.049
Fifty years ago this week,[br]President John F. Kennedy

0:09:22.049,0:09:23.665
made two epoch-making speeches,

0:09:23.665,0:09:27.223
the first on disarmament[br]and the second on civil rights.

0:09:27.223,0:09:28.925
The first led almost immediately

0:09:28.925,0:09:30.829
to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,

0:09:30.829,0:09:33.863
and the second led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act,

0:09:33.863,0:09:37.541
both of which represented giant leaps forward.

0:09:37.541,0:09:39.885
Democracy, well-led and well-informed,

0:09:39.885,0:09:42.424
can achieve very great things,

0:09:42.424,0:09:44.205
but there's a precondition.

0:09:44.205,0:09:47.192
We have to trust that those making those decisions

0:09:47.192,0:09:49.783
are acting in the best interest not of themselves

0:09:49.783,0:09:51.623
but of the whole of the people.

0:09:51.623,0:09:54.641
We need factually-based options,

0:09:54.641,0:09:56.085
clearly laid out,

0:09:56.085,0:09:57.325
not those of a few powerful

0:09:57.325,0:09:59.313
and potentially manipulative corporations

0:09:59.313,0:10:01.773
pursuing their own frequently narrow agendas,

0:10:01.773,0:10:04.125
but accurate, unprejudiced information

0:10:04.125,0:10:06.702
with which to make our own judgments.

0:10:06.702,0:10:08.488
If we want to provide decent, fulfilling lives

0:10:08.488,0:10:10.613
for our children and our children's children,

0:10:10.613,0:10:13.700
we need to exercise to the[br]very greatest degree possible

0:10:13.700,0:10:15.719
that duty of care for a vibrant

0:10:15.719,0:10:18.447
and hopefully a lasting democracy.

0:10:18.447,0:10:20.422
Thank you very much for listening to me.

0:10:20.422,0:10:24.361
(Applause)