Beware the sanitisation of public debate

A timely article by Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas, on The Free Society blog. Reflecting on the fate that has befallen the Archbishop of Canterbury in recent days, she notes how Dr Rowan Williams has joined a long list of public figures, from DNA pioneer Professor James Watson to TV's David Bellamy to Pope Benedict XVI who have recently been denounced and told – YOU CAN’T SAY THAT. 

The problem is less big government, or the nanny state, and more an informal narrowing of what all of us can say in the public sphere ... We have to defend free speech by asserting that we can say that, we will say that, and no amount of media hysteria or moral outrage will silence us. If we don’t, we can expect a free society to go up in smoke.

Full article HERE.