FREE SPEECH? WHAT’S THAT? British blogger to be arrested for inciting racial hatred. What, are they channeling the Saudis in Britain? If you’re interested in supporting free speech rights, the British Embassy’s contact page is here. As with the Saudi case I don’t know much about the blogger, but I don’t need to — people shouldn’t be arrested merely for blogging things that the powers-that-be don’t like.
But since the British government disagrees, they should be forced to live with their position, and the one-sided nature of it should be brought out. As with the Steyn-persecuting Canadian government, British citizens who value free speech should be flooding the authorities with complaints about hate speech aimed at Jews, Christians and, for fun, even Americans, and then documenting the action, or lack thereof, that results.
UPDATE: Brian Micklethwait comments: “If Lionheart’s claim that he faces arrest just for blogging his mind are correct, then of course it is everything-and-the-kitchen-sink time. Let battle be joined. But for now, I would like just a little more reconnaissance.” Well, if it turns out he knocked over a bank or something, then yes. But the notion of people being arrested in Britain just for saying politically incorrect things is hardly shocking these days. That said, I’d be happy if this turned out to be something else, for obvious reasons. As one of Micklethwait’s commenters observes: “Surely the bigger issue here isn’t whether or not he actually goes to chokey, it’s the fact that we now live in a society in which he credibly could.” And that’s pretty clearly the case in Britain, which is also trying to export its laws to the United States via libel tourism and the like.