Free Speech (but only if it suits me)

So common sense has been used at last.I'm talking about the verdict of the Press Complaints Commission on the article that Jan Moir published in The Daily Mail last year.
She decided to comment of the death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately,who died whilst on in his holiday home in Majorca with his male partner.Mr Gately died alone whilst his partner (who he had married in a civil partnership) was in another room with a guy they had picked up in a nightclub.But I digress.If you want to read the extra details of the article,I'm sure it's out there on the web..

I didn't have a problem with what she wrote.I do have a slightly uncomfortable feeling about when she wrote it,but hey she is there to sell more newspapers after all.The problem that I do have however is the wave of protest that washed tsunami like over the media after the article was published.

Comments of homophobia undertones were bandied about by gay rights group Stonewall.And there lies the problem.

It's now got to the point that any person or group that criticizes another is instantly shouted down as being Homophobic,Racist,Anti Islamic,Anti Semitic,sexist etc.I'm sure that you can think of more labels.Disagreeing with someone is completely different to being hateful or disrespectful to them.

I was under the impression that free speech was a quality that we were all entitled to.Not just minorities.

Just take a look at TV programmes.There is a comedy here in the UK called The Vicar of Dibley.It's a gentle poke at the whole concept of a sleepy middle England village that suddenly acquires a female Christian Vicar.In the village are several types of people that some would call stereotyped,but nothing was said.People just laughed at it and enjoyed it for what it was.I didn't hear of any female members of the cloth saying "Denounce this anti Christian blasphemy".

How different things would have been if instead it was called ""The Rabbi of Ramsgate? Or shock horror "The Imam of Birmingham"? The BBC would be forced to issue statements of apology and the streets would be full of followers waving placards saying "death to Infidels".

To Quote Voltaire:I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

Look after yourselves......