Am I a woolly minded liberal or has free speech gone in this country? Much I find it abhorrent what Nick Griffin leader of the BNP has to say by attempting to prosecute him for ‘inflaming ‘ racial hatred’ it has had the effect he wanted of having a platform to broadcast his ideas. If the speech( in the loosest terms) had been ignored by the media and law his poisonous words would have reached about 20 fanatics who don’t need to be inflamed anyway. Now he has national platform. Much as I despise his views I think he has a right to say them just as much as extreme religious fundamentalists . On the net there is the most utter rubbish which to all extents is ignored. If one tries to suppress ideas it gives credence to crap. In the confines of the court he can say libellous tripe he couldn’t get away with outside it- Am I woolly minded liberal? Probably- but by ‘ cracking down’ on intolerance seems so counter productive.
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matt_watson
- 30.01.06 @ 17:55:56
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John Stuart Mill one of the most respected figures in Modern Liberalism made the distinction between freedom of speech and using that speech to encourage others to violence.
What needs to happen in this country is a single law against the use of words or language to encourage violence against another individual. Then we could do away with all this religious and racial legislation. Everyone would be protected from those who would abuse their freedom of speech.