Catherine Bennett defends Rod Liddle. Since when did his freedom of speech trump mine or any of the other 3,900 members of the facebook group?
Catherine Bennett has a ridiculous piece in today’s Observer where she defends her pal, Rod Liddle’s inalienable human right to be editor of the Independent.
Bennett says:
Last week, it was the turn of my former G2 colleague, the columnist Rod Liddle, following reports that he has been lined up to edit the Independent in the event of its being bought by Alexander Lebedev … A petition against his appointment has at least 3,000 signatures. Having much enjoyed the hospitality of Mr and Mrs Liddle, I’m in no position to pronounce on what he may offer the Independent, but I can only wonder at the conviction among his online critics that the Liddle worldview is so much less acceptable than those of other editors, actual or potential …
This unfortunate consequence of free speech has inspired a host of worthies, including Diane Abbott, Sunny Hundal and Will Straw, to proclaim the importance of columnist-containment. In “Left Foot Forward”, his “political blog for progressives”, Master Straw boldly misrepresents one of the miscreant’s pieces, in order to attract new signatories to the “stop Liddle” campaign and thus protect our wives and servants.
I’m sorry, but when did Rod Liddle’s freedom of speech trump mine, Sunny’s, Diane Abott’s or any of the other 3,900 members of the facebook group?
And which of Liddle’s articles did I “boldly misrepresent”? Was it any of his opinions that Left Foot Forward highlighted last Sunday:
– decrying “Muslim Savages“
– mocking the black British community for merely producing “rap music” and “goat curry“
– denying the evidence for Anthropogenic Global Warming theory
– a series of sexist articles and views including “So – Harriet Harman, then. Would you? I mean after a few beers obviously, not while you were sober.”
Or perhaps it was his latest outburst which highlighted on Monday: “F*** off back to where you’re from, then, you Muslims.” Or maybe the alleged racist messages on a football website.
And let me answer Bennett (no patronising honorific required) since she asks this about our views on Islam4UK:
“Perhaps, once this more pressing threat has receded, Straw Junior will take time to reconsider the gagging of Islam4UK.”
On January 6th, Shamik Das set out a detailed post about the legality of banning Islam4UK and outlined clearly that more evidence was needed. Shami Chakrabarti of the human rights group Liberty told the BBC that proscription should be limited to groups involved in terrorist activity and evidence of Islam4UK’s terrorist involvement has not been presented.
Since it appears we offended Bennett, I’ll leave the final word to her:
“the privilege of free expression carries with it a grave responsibility: not to say anything people might not like.”
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
30 Responses to “Do Rod Liddle’s human rights trump yours?”
CJ
One might as well say ‘We live in a free society: why shouldn’t we say that 2+2=5?’
Tom: We live in a free society, so yes, we can say 2+2=5 all we want. However, we are taught that this is incorrect, by our parents, our peers, our education system. If you stood up and said 2+2=5, you would be immediately told by a vast majority that you are wrong, 2+2=4.
Good analogy for a democracy.
Freedom Of Speech, Not Freedom From Criticism « Stuff And Nonsense
[…] Sarah Ditum, Enemies of Reason, Left foot forward. […]
Sunny H
As one of the people names in CB’s hilariously crap article, I wonder what she thinks now given her pal is exposed as having written some deeply nasty comments online. Perhaps we’re the real fascists for finding them disgusting!
Mister Jabberwock
It may be patronising but since when has “Master” been a pronoun?
Sam
“I’m not in particular a fan of the Clarkson-lite shock jock approach, but you progressives need to realise that reality is making a comeback. Objectivity is going to crush progressivism to pieces. Tell that to your friends at the student union.”
Yes, in other words “I won’t explain why or say what about but you’re totally wrong. I rest my case.” Yeah well argued there. Powerful logic.