Loosely themed introductions aside, this birth of these pages was strated under the influence of a day following Twitter - something I don't do often because I'm still trying to find a place for twittering in my life. However like many beginining twitterers I do follow Stephen Fry, which means I did get to follow the furore over The Jan Moir article on Stephen Gateley. I'm now listening to a radio 5 debate on this woman's article and the response to it... and some how all participants are talking round the issue of 'free speech'... its like should people have the right to write utter nonsense.. Do people who object to offensive articles have the right to suppress the free speech of writers of utter nonensense?
Of course not. But they have the right to point out that it is utter nonsense, and in this case utter nonsense that is offensive to many and dangerous to us all. Thats all I've heard from Moir's detractors.
A person should say what they think, short of inciting actual violence, and if that leads me, or others, think the writer an ill-informed bigoted idiot then I shall... and in this case I do.
Free speech is a right. Unchallenged Free speech is not.
We shall all be known by our words.
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