Thoughts on Behaviour – Do Blogs Need Bouncers?

I see that Neil Harding has dipped his toe into the waters of devolution.

The Tories (as usual) are completely partizan about this. An English parliament will allow them to control the North of England with the support of their wealthy voters that are mainly in the rich South and Midlands.

Yeah, not sure I’d entirely go along with that, but nevermind, it wasn’t what I wanted to comment upon. No, it was the comments section. As with any time a blog raises the dreaded West Lothian problem, the usual suspects descend. In part, I agree with them (in that I acknowledge the problem). Many bring with them rational debate to back up their reasoning. Some, however, don’t:

You waffle fucking rubbish you idiot! Most of scotland’s legislation is enacted by the scotch parliament NOT Westminster. There are no English people sitting as m.p.’s in the scotch parliament. Not one.
Now what you lying sack of fucking shite?

What amazes me is Neil’s capacity to tolerate this behaviour. There is a sort of unwritten rule on the web about censorship and that’s all well and dandy, but freedom of speech comes with the responsibility to behave; respect the place where one is conversing, if you like. As someone once pointed out over at Samizdata:

There is speech which invites a conversation or at least a response in kind, and there is “speech” which is nothing more than vandalism. We harm rather than help the cause of free speech if we pretend the latter should be given the same respect as the former.

I would suggest that the anonymous commenter on Neil’s blog falls firmly in the latter category. Yes, blogs do need bouncers.