FREE speech; one of the main pillars of any democracy.
Over the generations, many have died defending it, and we owe it to them and our children that the basic right to be able to speak freely continues.
Fortunately, we live in a country where this is still the accepted norm, although a worrying shadow is spreading across the land.
Nowhere is this more evident than on-line.
The victims of this growing intolerance are either ‘cancelled’, ‘deplatformed’ or struck off social media.
In the USA, the venerable New York Times has seen the departure of star writer Bari Weiss, who wrote in her resignation letter: “Twitter is not on the masthead of the New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor.”
Closer to home, writer JK Rowling, feminist Germaine Greer, ITN news anchor Alastair Stewart and countless others have fallen foul of a new and insidious threat to free speech, where any opinion which transgresses the latest perceived wisdom is howled down.
Although this minority is proven to be unrepresentative, they are creating a climate of fear.
The Free Speech Union (FSU) is currently defending several university lecturers who, rashly as it turned out, said what they thought.
It is extraordinary that, in this country, those who express an opposing view, particularly on emotive subjects, risk losing their livelihoods.
This new ‘policing’ of speech is, without doubt, affecting parliamentary debates, with colleagues often refraining from speaking their minds for fear of the repercussions.
The enforcers of this new repression consider themselves righteous, a trait that should be treated with great suspicion.
Article 10 of the Human Rights’ Act says we must be able to express ourselves freely.
Amen to that.