BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD READ BY STEPHEN: “Mrs Daddywood, are you there?”, shouted Reggie from the comfort of the giltwood and red silk damask Tatham, Bailey & Sanders chaise longue. “Just a minute, luv”, said Mrs Daddywood as she came charging down the corridor. “Oh, there you are. How splendid. Now, Mrs Daddywood, why don’t you take a seat? By golly, Mrs Daddywood…”. He paused … Continue reading A Mild Scrape with the Banter Bill
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Having spent the best part of an afternoon amidst betting shop habitués, Reggie decided to call it a day and cadged a lift from the races back to town. Poor Reggie had placed what was left of his student loan on Freedom of Speech at Risk and the filly finished plum last. ‘It all seems rather prophetic’, mumbled the Very Rev’d … Continue reading A Visit from the ‘Boys’ in Blue
BY JOE NUTT If you can’t speak freely you are someone else’s puppet. In that brief sentence alone, any genuinely well-educated reader should find delicious food for thought, because words aren’t the innocent little toys the ex-hippies the BBC loves to sell as language experts, insist they are. They are a constant battleground of chemical reactions that link me to other English speakers like you. … Continue reading Someone Else’s Puppet
BY HAMISH GOBSON Given that Humza Yousaf’s Hate Crime Act came into force on April Fools’ Day, I thought it might help to put it in context by remembering Scotland’s fascist past. That story has been well told by a St Andrews academic, Gavin Bowd, in an important book called FASCIST SCOTLAND: Caledonia and the Far Right (2014). Anyone who wants to understand the nationalist connection with … Continue reading April Haters Day Has Fascist Past
BY JOHN MUSGRAVE Britain’s first rock and roll radio station, Radio Caroline, started transmissions this weekend 60 years ago. Despite our country’s role as the world’s leading democracy, free speech has had a tough time of it in Britain. Back in the 60s the establishment loathed the idea of free radio. It couldn’t be controlled and playing rock and roll was considered unwholesome. Nevertheless, Caroline … Continue reading The Importance of Radio Caroline
BY EFFIE DEANS It ought to be possible for a Celtic fan to go to an Old Firm Game and stand amongst the Rangers fans in his Celtic shirt while cheering every time Celtic score a goal and booing each time Rangers score. Amongst all those blue shirts it ought to be possible for a single green and white shirt to be enjoying the match … Continue reading Covenanters Preaching Outside Again
BY EFFIE DEANS There is a problem with free speech in Scotland. The most important political events in recent times cannot openly be discussed. Secrecy still surrounds the time when Alex Salmond was First Minister and the court case in 2020. The only way to discuss is to write about something else and hope that people understand the point. The point is to illustrate the … Continue reading What Once was Free Speech
BY EFFIE DEANS How many people who are delivering their daughters to Oxford University are a threat to national security? I can think of no such Dads pulling up to the college in their estate cars packed with clothes and computers blowing themselves up at the gates to our dreaming spires waking them from their slumbers with cries of Jesus is merciful. Good Catholics have … Continue reading Banned from Britain
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Political correctness can be so stifling and inelegant. Originating almost a century ago in Russia with the term politicheskaya pravil’nost, it undermines Western values and builds needless barriers. It is a net which its clumsy proponents designed for all to be trapped in. However, like that other macro and unhelpful fishing practice, bottom trawling (no, don’t go there) – which destroys far … Continue reading Politically Incorrect Positives
BY FRANK HAVILAND Like a freshly-embossed ‘Lord Bercow’ business card, the free speech jubilation over last week’s vindication of Harry ‘the Owl’ Miller was a tad premature. Miller, a man of such unspeakable wickedness he dared retweet an ‘offensive limerick’, had been visited by Humberside Police who wanted to ‘check his thinking’. He was told he had committed no crime, but the event would be … Continue reading Owl & the Pussy Hats
BY JAMIE FOSTER It is reported that Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are using an online hate index created by the Anti Defamation League to moderate hate speech on social media. The online hate index is a machine based AI programme that searches out and identifies examples of hate speech so that action can be taken. This opens a massive can of worms concerning what hate … Continue reading Online Hate Index is Frightening
