Kishwer Falkner is calling for members of her community to be more tolerant of free speech. She also wants to see the blasphemy laws repealed:
Lady Falkner, who speaks for the Lib Dems on home affairs in the Lords, said the blasphemy laws protecting Christians should now be repealed to ensure consistency.But she added: “If we demand equality, we cannot demand respect – that has to be earned.”
Precisely. The recent hysterical demands for “respect” are misplaced. We earn respect, it is not granted as a right.
Lady Falkner very sensibly calls for evenhandedness on the issue:
She told delegates: “I would say to my community we have to become more broad shouldered. We have to become more tolerant. We have to learn the art of peaceful dissent.”She said laws in Austria and Germany banning denial of the holocaust should also be scrapped, arguing they were now out of place in the “mature and confident democracies” the two countries had become.
“They should repeal it and let Holocaust deniers express their hateful and warped versions of history,” she said.
Indeed. Well, I would say that, because I’ve already echoed a similar view. Free speech should be unconditional. The idea of self-censorship is sound where it is done for the right reasons. I have no problem with sensitivity and exercise it myself.
I leave the last word to LibDem home affairs spokesman, Alistair Carmichael:
“There is no such thing as freedom not be offended.”
Hear, hear.