Keep quiet or face arrest
Saturday, 11th May 2002
Peter Hitchens on how the law is being used to curb free speech - and thought
Like the canaries in coalmines that fell from their perches at the earliest whiff of poison gas, eccentrics and outsiders are the first to suffer when intolerance grows and repressive conformism spreads. Such people can easily be isolated by mockery or contempt. They do not trim their views diplomatically to suit the occasion. Thus they are more likely than most to attract the attentions of would-be thought police. But what can happen to them can eventually happen to you, too. And that is why those in favour of liberty and democracy should be supporting the unlikely cause of Harry Hammond, a 69-year-old sufferer from Asperger's Syndrome who likes to preach the Gospel in the open air of Bournemouth, whether anyone is listening to him or not.
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