Free Speech

The ability to speak freely is an integral part of any democracy, Free speech is essential to change, particularly if the speech challenges conventional wisdom or even the law. What would have been the outcome if Suffragettes were unable to make the case to why women should have the vote or if Wilberforce was unable to stand up and say that slavery should be abolished. Unfortunately the polarisation of views on free speech driven by that darling of discourse, Twitter along with the orange-haired demagogue has given the topic a bad name. So much so, that legislation like the Hate Crime Bill introduced to curb hatred and incitement to violence is now being used against people for asserting simple, irrefutable, scientific facts. Civility can never be achieved by forcing people to keep quiet under threat of criminal charges - that's the path to dictatorship.