Free speech is a fundamental right but it comes with responsibility - Yorkshire Post Letters

Dick Lindley (The Yorkshire Post, September 10) is worried that it’s only a matter of time before opinions such as those held by himself and YP contributor GP Taylor are banned for being “dangerous”.

I think he can relax; the words that spring to mind do not include “dangerous” but “silly, hyperbolic and ill-informed”. He appears to have swallowed hook, line and sinker GP Taylor’s utterly bizarre column (September 4) in which the latter appears to hold Keir Starmer responsible for what he calls ‘Kirstiegate’ and lays out wild predictions about what the “illiberal socialists” now in power are planning, as if these speculations are fact - which, of course, they are not.

Mr Lindley seems to think the new Government is driven by socialism (if only) and the “idiotic woke brigades”. Taking those opinions seriously for just a minute, one must assume he has no truck with our NHS (possibly the best example of socialism there is) and also that he is not the least bit bothered by racism, slavery, misogyny, inequality etc. So be it.

While his prediction that “Centuries of freedom of expression” are about to be “obliterated in the name of socialism” is simply ridiculous, Mr Lindley’s ‘dog whistle’ attempt to link the Labour Party to National Socialism is deeply offensive; as anyone familiar with the events leading up to WWII will know, it is a very different concept.

Let us not forget that it was the Labour Party that helped get Britain back on its feet post-war with policies that transformed - and saved - the lives of many.

In an earlier column (August 21) GP Taylor was strongly critical of the police going after the “hurty words of a keyboard warrior”. One could argue, given the disinformation that he himself has shared with us, this opinion comes from a place of self-interest, but the reality is that the horrific riots that started in Southport were the direct result of a blatant lie presented and spread via the internet.

The second part of the old adage “sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you” could not be further from the truth.

In a civilised society, free speech is a fundamental right, but that does not mean giving a free pass to hate speech, or the deliberate spreading of lies with the intention of causing harm.

It’s a privilege that will surely remain, but like anything else (e.g. driving) those abusing it to the serious detriment of others should not be immune from punishment.