Friday, September 10, 2010

Freedom Of Expression Has No Bounds

News across the world has been going crazy recently about an evangelical pastor based in Florida attempts to burn the Koran in a ceremony to commemorate 9/11. Pastor Terry Jones in his previous comments has shown himself to be extremely Islamaphobic and these views are not acceptable. I hate Pastor Terry Jones and his bigoted views. However for the same reason I do not support those calling for the building of the Islamic cultural centre near ground zero to be stopped, for the same reason I will defend anti-globalisation organisations right to protest and a holocaust deniers right to debate, I do not support those calling for Pastor Terry Jones Koran burning event to be banned.

This is because freedom of speech and expression has to be protected even if it ends up protecting nasty people. Unlike in other countries the USA until now has always understood this. This is because of the American Constitution first amendment that protects freedom of speech. Therefore abhorrent people can burn the American flag because this is their right as free citizens of the United States to do so. This meant that the Texan Gregory Lee Jones in an Anti-Reagan protest, right to burn the American flag was defended in the Supreme Court. I and many others at the same time have the freedom to call people like Pastor Terry Jones as abhorrent racists and run counter-demonstrations as long as we do not engage in physical violence. However I do not have the right to gag his protest and neither does the state. This is because freedom of expression means abhorrent people have the freedom to offend. If we shut them down we would be living in a dictatorship and I'm sure no one wants that. I would prefer to live in a society where everyone can express an opinion and go on a march without fear of arbitrary arrest or state intervention to ban it. This is despite the fact that offensive people will take advantage of these rights. The alternative choice is to live in a society comparable to the Soviet Union where your every move is watched and the state traps every individual inside a prison. This all means that hardly anyone will speak out or protest due to fear.

There are those who say the ban is endangering security, however Pastor Terry Jones is not calling for the killing of American soldier. Those who are carrying out these attacks have deep hatred for the west and will look to any excuse to attack soldiers from the west. They are not attacking American and British soldiers in Afghanistan because of Pastor Terry Jones. They are attacking American and British soldiers as they hate that the free values of the West. We should not give into them, just because they would like to see us live in a less free society where freedom of expression no longer exists.

It is testament to the USA that they can let extremist organisations be they Muslim, Christian or Jew to express their opinion in any way they see fit unless they take part in physical violence. These rights would not be allowed in countries such as Saudi Arabia, where religious freedom is not allowed and when those expressing religious beliefs, which the state does not recognise are dealt with severely. The excuse given here a lot of the time is that a reduction in religious freedom was needed on the grounds of security. This is a feeble excuse. No one after all is secure in an authoritarian society. If the USA government banned Pastor Terry Jones’ protest, they will throw away a long tradition of promoting religious freedom, including the religious freedom of those with deeply warped views.

To conclude I do not support the calls calling for the burning of the Koran ceremony to be banned. Whilst it would be easy to call for a ban, it would be a betrayal of freedom of expression and freedom of speech. We betray these values at our peril, as they are the foundation blocks of a democratic and free society. Without them the very essence of democracy in the USA and the West in general starts to crumble.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Bill Etheridge Is A Nasty Conservative and Proud Of It

Today this blog post will be written by Bill Etheridge. Bill Etheridge is a Conservative activist in Dudley. He has also created a branch of the Campaign Against Political Correctness for the West Midlands. He is also a proud member of The Freedom Association where he has been great help. Bill is proud of being a conservative and stands by right wing values which he feels proud of. Today Bill will be writing a post on what it means to be what the media call "nasty conservatives". He will also show why it is precisely the values of so called nasty conservatives which need to flourish in our country to make us great again.

BILL ETHERIDGE. I'M A NASTY CONSERVATIVE AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT

I recently formed a new group; we call ourselves “The Nasty Conservatives”. Within 24Hours we had over sixty members!

The aim of the group is to counter the ridiculous propaganda that has been propagated for many years by the Left, that anyone who stands for Right of Centre, “Conservative” values, is “Nasty”.

The word “Nasty” is particularly effective as a label or descriptive term. The dictionary definition for the word has several meanings including; dirty, repellent, malicious, spiteful, dangerous and unpleasant. All in all “Nasty” is a powerful and exceptionally negative word.

With brilliant determination and consistency the Left of British politics have managed to label first the Conservative party then anybody who follows a Right of centre agenda as Nasty. The term is a brilliant way of avoiding any debate of the tough issues or of strong measures to solve them. It has such power that David Cameron and his inner circle felt a policy of “detoxification” was required to improve the image of the Nasty Party.

So to paraphrase the mantra that the British public has been subjected to over recent years, anything other than a soft, Social Democratic approach to politics has been labelled as beyond the pale and unpalatable. While the New Labour machine worked hard at spinning the line that reasonable people like their Government to be “touchy feely” with a caring feather light touch and anything other than that is somehow barbaric, the liberal elite controlling the BBC and much of our education system where busily rewriting history. The rewrite characterised the 1980s as a bleak period, where the ruined wastelands of Britain were ruled over by the wicked Margaret Thatcher and her evil Tory henchmen.

The distressing thing is that this twin pronged approach was so effective it has created several “Truths” that are becoming established in the collective consciousness of the British people. Amongst these “Truths” are; the valiant miners were working class heroes supported by the country but crushed by a police state. The only good Budget is a progressive, redistributing one. We can’t leave The European Union it would cost too many jobs. We benefit from a Multicultural society and it is to be encouraged and celebrated. Reading these statements we all know what the programmed response should be to anybody who questions them, these people are uncaring, a bit crazy or worse still racist.

I reject these “truths”. I don’t believe that the Government needs to be focusing on redistributing wealth, I would rather it helped create an environment where wealth creation is easier. I certainly don’t believe the Miners strike was a noble effort by them on behalf of the working class. I believe it was a politically motivated attempt by a Marxist led mob to unseat the democratically elected Government. I don’t believe we need to stay in the European Union for economic or any other reason. I certainly don’t believe in “Celebrating Multiculturalism” as the cliché goes, rather I believe that immigration has run out of control and it needs to be brought right down. Those immigrants who have settled here need to be encouraged to integrate into British society and its values.

The last paragraph is a classic set of beliefs that would have me immediately labelled as a “Nasty Conservative” or as one of the latest derogatory terms goes “A head banger”. In the past, I have been guilty of wondering whether the prevailing consensus was right and I better just keep my head down. My doubts, however, have been totally assuaged by the disastrous fall, spread over several years, of the Labour government. It is quite clear that the forces of New Labour have literally brought this country to ruin.

The only way to save our country from the brink of permanent decline is to embrace radical, hard line Conservative values. The time for half measures and towing the line has passed. Blair and Brown were in power too long for the damage they did to be easily reversed, maybe it can’t be reversed at all and it’s too late. If this were the case, in the spirit of Churchill who declared that he and the cabinet would lie “Choking in their own Blood” before giving up on our Country. We must fight on until the bitter end, when the once majestic Britannia finally slumps to the status of a Third world state with faint echoes of its former greatness symbolised by impressive architecture and archaic ceremonies, laid on for the tourists.
I am a “Nasty Conservative”. I am a member of the Conservative Party, The Freedom Association, The Bruges Group and The Campaign Against Political Correctness. I will do everything I can to reverse the disastrous path our country has been set on by decades of social engineering, political correctness and weak leadership.

If you are proud of our country and its wonderful history, while still believing we could have a great future, then it is your duty to fight back. This fight back can take many forms from joining a political party or pressure group to simply refusing to accept the lies any more. Strong measures and determined leadership are what is needed to repair the damage done by Thirteen years of New Labour; we need to be “Nasty” to save our Country!