No time to 'no platform' election candidates
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 The BBC reports that candidates from the three main parties have withdrawn from a public meeting in West Sussex after the Labour candidate refused to share a platform with the BNP and the other candidates pulled out in his wake. Story HERE.
Writing for The Free Society today, journalist and writer Suzy Dean argues that their refusal to debate with the BNP "demeans us, the public, and the democratic election process".
So far freedom has failed to become a hot issue in the general election despite numerous curtailments to individual and collective liberties over the past five years from anti-terror laws to the ban on smoking in pubs. In fact, the election itself is appearing to damage another one of our most fundamental freedoms, our freedom of speech ...
The assumption seems to be that if we are allowed to see and hear the BNP, we will listen and agree. But in fact, the majority of us do not, and will not, constitute a racist mob. Anybody should be able to run with their views in an election, whatever they are, in a bid to canvass some support. It is then down to us to decide if we want to give them our vote ...
No platform for the BNP is a crude attempt to show moral and political superiority of the mainstream parties over the BNP ... For politicians to simply censor the BNP is to say that they don’t believe in democracy and their own powers of persuasion - they don’t believe they need to win the argument.
Full article HERE.
Note: this thread is about freedom of speech not the BNP!
Reader Comments (3)
Note: this thread is about freedom of speech not the BNP!
So will anyone posting on this thread have their freedom of speech curtailed if they mention the BNP Simon?
What precious souls these people have !
Once again, the gorgeous Suzy Dean demonstrates that more intelligence and wisdom lurks beneath her beautifully-manicured nails than among the combined noddles on the front benches.
I know - it's not THAT difficult.
Even so..................
The more the BNP is debated in public the more they are hoist by their own petard. All candidates should share a platform and I am sure the BNP will disappear off the radar.