Billy Connolly and the death of free speech

I hope readers will forgive me for returning to a subject I addressed here recently. It was a reflection on the current confusion over who in our society is allowed to speak and who is not.

Back then I referred to the oddity of the YouTuber Carl Benjamin being forced to live with his worst ‘joke’ forever while Jo Brand appeared to be able to be forgiven for hers in no seconds flat. Incidentally, since the comedienne advocated an upgrade in the contents of the trend for ‘milkshaking’ it has indeed been stepped up a gear. 

Last weekend in Portland, Oregon so-called ‘anti-fascists’ reportedly laced their offerings with skin-corroding substances to attack a journalist. Is Brand to be accused of ‘incitement’, or should she not be because she is famous? And left-wing.

But just as I was wondering what the rules are in the current speech game, another example was going on right then and there. For as Hardeep Singh described here, last month a 54-year old man was fired from his job at Asda for sharing a video clip online. 

Brian Leach was summarily dismissed for breaching his employer’s social media policy. The clip which he shared online, and for which he was sacked, was a clip of Billy Connolly being rude about religion. You can see the clip here.

Of course as a number of people have pointed out, it is possible that if Mr Leach had shared a clip of, say, a comedian only being rude about Christianity then he might have been OK. But it appears that the fact that the clip in question showed Billy Connolly being rude about all religion – including Islam – is the reason that he is now no longer in work.