So, you Anglospheroids, feel all superior do you when you read about the likes of North Korea, or Vlad's Russia, or the People's Republic of China. Ghastly places, you shudder, thank God - and Magna Carta or something or other they taught us in our history lessons - at least we have freedom of speech 'over here' - and they even have a version of it 'over there'. Really? Do you believe that?
Ok, well here's a little test. Go into work next week and start moaning about all those camel-shaggers or Yids or 'Chinky-chonks' or nig-nogs and then see if your feet touch the ground as security frog-marches you out of the building and dumps you and the contents of your desk on the pavement! Thus will you find out the hard way that we very definitely do not enjoy freedom of speech in this country.
Well, of course, we never have had it if you take the word 'freedom' in its widest sense because libel and slander have been punishable in the courts for centuries. However, they are laws proposed and debated in parliament and passed by due process. Also, they are designed to protect specific individuals not entire ethnic groups which is just as well because in the 1940s the Germans might have lost the war but they could have sued our backsides off for the things we said about them!
Now don't misunderstand me - the last pathetic plea of the man caught out in saying something 'inappropriate' - I am not in favour of people slagging off other individuals or groups or races because by and large I'm in favour of good manners. And, JK, don't bother rushing to the archives to find the many instances of my rudeness to others, I am all too well aware of them. However, the great virtue of public rudeness towards individuals or groups is that it tells you so much about the person being rude! I want to know what other people really think, it says so much about them, and so the last thing to do is shut them up for fear of a whipped-up public campaign against them. And finally, it worries me that the language commissars are entirely self-appointed. No-one voted for them. They just use their big mouths to dominate the media. They are a very real threat to us all.
So, to sum up, I'm in favour of freedom of speech - good, bad and downright ugly!
