I think, therefore I’m guilty

Brian Lawrenson

Excellent article, and so well stated.

Mark Hanson

I wholeheartedly agree with this article.
I have had the same concerns, and you may be interested in the Freedom of Speech Campaign which I am running - I have a petition at www.rabel.org.uk.
Mark.

Linda Smith

Spot on!

Simon C-S

The last paragraph just about describes me, so I'll stay up and wait for the police to call.

It is really worrying that those 'right thinkers' who take the moral high ground (although that's a contradiction in itself!) have now become the most dangerous element to a civilised society. On the one hand, they cite 'equality' and 'reason', and yet only tolerate their understanding or interpretation of it,

On the climate issue, I have never seen so much effort and determinism to force the entire globe to think and believe the pro-warmist claptrap that every natural climate event is the fault of our actions in the production of that evil gas CO2, and so impose the social engineering the believe we need, including heavy and dishonest carbon taxation, and even more dishonest renewables subsidies including the feed-in tariffs.

On the persecution of Christians, and I mean those who hold the teaching in the Bible to be true and profess a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and have accepted him as Lord and Saviour, the message has been getting louder and louder - "shut up or we'll shut you up". I can't even wish somebody a 'Happy Christmas' any more.

A A Williams

WOW! Yes. And who will listen? This is paradigm shift by gulag!

Frank McGarry

Thank you Melanie for being brave enough to be a dissenter. I have recently returned from Germany where Thilo Sarrazin, a socialist politician, has been demonised and vilified by the left for daring to publish a book (Deutschland schafft sich ab!) discussing these issues as they affect the Germans.

His reward for dissenting is that he is hated by the polically correct tyrants but at the same time his book has become an instant bestseller. Whilst Sarrazin has had to stand down from his position on the board of the Bundesbank, he has also become a national hero.

Herbert Thornton

Spot on, Melanie!

Indeed, the Spectator's own invitation at the end of our comments which reads "Report this comment" feels like a chilling foretaste of the future.

Even though I've stopped being a Christian & incline towards Buddhism, I can't help thinking - God help us all.

maddy1

Yes! but when they do change they just move the goal posts slightly to the right!

Andy Brim

What a depressingly true piece. You could have written it 10 years ago and it would have been true. (you probably did) What if this suffocating legacy of the Nu Labor years pertains in 2020!?

There can be no moral progress while cultural and moral relativism is the ideological rule in law and governance. That's a fact.

Kevin Lafayette

All I can say is, and this probably applies to most people; welcome to the world you thought you wanted. I hope you enjoy living in it.

Denis Moon

You last paragraph described me to a tee. It's such a shame British culture has change so much in the past 15 or so years. I'm sad not because I'm old but because we have given up so much.

Emma Warren

Brilliant article. Everyone should read this. Sums up the state of Britain pretty well - we are becoming a country told to become so "tolerant" of everyone that Christian values are often not tolerated...I wonder how that works?
The last paragraph = what my Dad's said about himself for a while. I'm so glad others say it - hopefully he'll be comforted to know he's one of many!
A great read, thank you :)

Michael

This needs to be a t-shirt!

John Steadman

Breath-taking article high-lighting how and why we are being gagged and, I think, implicitly acknowledging that that there is no immediate prospect of any reversal.Profoundly depressing.

Werner Patels

Bravo, great article, great arguments. Indeed, those global warmists are the Nazis, not the "deniers". Lefties, i.e., political correctness (a mental disease) is, as you describe it, anti-Western, cultural Marxism.

Paul Worthington

Early battles for democracy were for representative government - meaning representative of local needs and aspirations of the people. Hence the institution of the constituency. In what sense does an MP today represent his or her constituency? What power would they have anyway in a governement based on spin doctoring and juggling the media, in which parliament is but an irritation, when it not juse a rent-a-crowd for the star performers in front of the cameras? Thatcher and Blair moved Britain a long way down this slope away from liberal enlightenment.

We have ended up with a governing establishment which not only does not represent the views and wishes of the people, but actively and skillfully opposes them.

A programme for the redemocratisation of the UK (and most other European countries) would be the restoration of a lot of power to parliament, the de-presendentialisation of the post of prime minister, and proper debate of real political issues in the constituencies. Not by the weird kangaroo courts of the internet, but properly organised to include all opinions. And on big issues, referenda. And a big, big clean up of the Broad Left police force and judiciary.

Want a model? Switzerland. NOT a "utopia" run by mad "idealists" (= smug absolutists), but a well-regulated place where the people have the final say and politics really is the art of the possible.

Stephanie Tohill

"Writers who bust the boundaries of permitted thinking may become the target of frenzied denunciation by a global army of haters whipping up a campaign for the dissident to be boycotted, banned or sacked."

And yet, once again we have somebody who fails to realise that free speech goes BOTH ways. I wholeheartedly agree that the police should not be involved in policing people's thoughts, or expression of said thought. However it is perfectly acceptable for individuals to demonstrate their free speech in calling for someone to be boycotted/sacked or vilifying them on the net.

You cannot support the rights of people to offend, whilst lamblasting those who use their free speech to respond.

Herbert Thornton

Stephanie Tohill says -

"You cannot support the rights of people to offend, whilst lamblasting (sic) those who use their free speech to respond."

But Stephanie - "lamblasting" them as you put it is also an essential part of free speech is it not?

ewen cameron

Your article could not be more ON THE BALL. Freedom of Speech is the cornerstone of democracy. Once questioned, it is the slippery slope syndrome.

Ariel

Freedom of religion should not become the freedom of abuse. I suppose you would agree that expressing antisemitic opinion in the name of a religion cannot be acceptable in a modern and liberal society. Homophobia is just another kind of antisemitism in which the Jews are replaced by the Gays.

Craig

Melanie -- presumably, then, you condemn the pre-emptive arrests of those wishing to protest againt the Royal Wedding?