Tuesday 27 April 2010

Suspension For Free Speech?

It is reported that Philip Lardner, Conservative candidate for North Ayrshire and Arran has been suspended for making homophobic remarks on his campaign site.

It says much for our society today that someone's personal views can be cause for his party to revoke their support - after all his views on homsexuality are but those shared by many others. Reading the link in the report to Lardner's website it would seem that his views may be formed by a religious belief.

So we have now reached a stage where a parliamentary candidate's beliefs, religious or otherwise, are dictated by a political party? For the Chairman of his party in Scotland to maintain that Lardner's views are "deeply offensive and not acceptable" is dictatorial to say the least. Where next? Are Douglas Carswell and Philip Davies' views to be held as "deeply offensive and not acceptable" because their views on Britain's EU membership do not 'toe the party line'?

This attitude that because something is said which is not 'politically correct' is unacceptable has to cease forthwith - or else we really are doomed to an Orwellian world.

2 comments:

derek.buxton1 said...

Yeah, but none of them ever studied biology, or any other science, and Christianity is a closed book to them all. Funny really, I always thought the "conservative" party was the party of freedom and love of one's Country, must have been thinking of some other lot.

Tim Almond said...

I'm extremely liberal about homosexuals, but I really don't see his comments as "deeply offensive". He doesn't consider what they do as normal, but also doesn't believe that the government should be stopped. Big deal.

This is all about managing the BBC BBC. The Conservatives know that they will jump all over a story like this to a level entirely out of proportion to its effect on the country.

It's why the BBC has to be removed (by getting rid of the mandatory license fee). I suspect Cameron doesn't get it. He'll try to contain it (which will just come back on him or his successors later).