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The rabble who mobbed Nigel Farage’s car do not understand free speech

Tom Winnifrith
Monday 23 March 2015

I do not support UKIP and I find much of what Nigel Farage has to say on matters such as immigration truly nauseating but those folk who mobbed his family car yesterday are even more nauseating.

Ben Gurion said that for Israel to be a grown up country it needed both prostitutes and fascists. Mr Farage is not a fascist (or a prostitute)  but would have understood the sentiment. In a mature country we tackle the economic illiteracy at the heart of UKIP, we point out why its policies on immigration make no sense and are just fundamentally nasty. One engages in a free debate. You do not mob the car in which he and or his family sits.

I find the views of Polly Toynbee or Owen Jones even more offensive and repellent than those of Mr Farage but I celebrate the fact that they are allowed to spout their nonsense as that gives those with half a brain cell the chance to engage in debate and point out how preposterous their ideas are.

It is sad but many on the left simply do not understand that free speech means supporting the idea of those whose views you loathe to speak freely. The gut reaction of far too many on the left is simply to attempt to shut down and no platform those with whom they disagree.

As an aside, many of those in the mob attacking the Farage car looked n good need of a bath and appeared to be a rainbow coalition of those living off welfare or working in the public sector. Perhaps one reason that the right does not protest in that way is that we are too tired after a long week in a real job to make the effort?

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About Tom Winnifrith
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Tom Winnifrith is the editor of TomWinnifrith.com. When he is not harvesting olives in Greece, he is (planning to) raise goats in Wales.
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