Free speech is everything for my generation – but only if you’re Left-wing – Telegraph.co.uk

From art galleriesand the BBCto Brexit and climate change,you can't be right unless you're Left

One of the things that comes with being privileged and well educated is a certain sense of arrogance in the validity of one's views. And among the many advantages of living in a democracy is the absolute freedom to express them.

Which is all very well, so long as you're on the right, or in this case the Left, side of the fence. Alas, from where Im standing, the only place most Conservatives feel they can be honest with their ideologies today is behind the screen at a polling station.

From politicians to actors, there is seemingly no limit to the sort of thing you can say in public so long as youre not a Tory. On the contrary, when Labour MP David Lammy was called out last year for equating members of the European Research Group to Nazis and proponents of apartheid, he reflected that his remarks "werent strong enough.

A month later, when comedian Jo Brand was responding on BBC Radio 4 to news that a protester had hurled a milkshake at Nigel Farage, she quipped: "Why bother when you could get some battery acid?" It ruffled a few feathers but was largely taken exactly in the spirit which it was meant: as a joke.

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Free speech is everything for my generation - but only if you're Left-wing - Telegraph.co.uk