Quote of the day 25th August 2014

“Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.”
 
( Albert Einstein )

Comments

Jim said…
Laws by their very nature don't allow you to do things, they prevent you from doing them.

dont kill anyone - that's a law, and you can see it PREVENTS you from killing someone (not that i have ever felt the need, but you know, better safe than sorry)

Don't steal anything - thats a law, and you can see it PREVENTS you from nicking stuff, not that it matters much as decent people dont usually nick things (unless they have to for survival)

No laws allow you to do something, other than of course to punish the offender if you are the victim of a crime (like murder or theft) - but then they dont stop murder or theft, they just sort of make it known that if you do it then there is a punishment.

Laws are there, to prevent people from doing things, the magna carta for example PREVENTED the king from a lot of his "assumed power" though that was only ever "assumed" no laws ever granted such power to the king.

Chris Whiteside said…
And that's why Einstein was right.

If you write into a law on constitution that people have the right to freedom of expression, what that usually means in practice is that you are attempting to ban people from trying to curtail someone else's freedom of expression.

But it will only work properly if the principle has something close to universal support.
Jim said…
the point really is that no law allows for !freedom of speach" really. Just some legislation is there to prevent people from preventing it, which is pretty pointless as freedom of speach is a basic freedom. So the lgislation is pointless.

Now for somthing like "dreedom of speach" you only have 2 choices, you can stand and sate your case which is in oposition to the first speaker, or you can opt not to.

to do the first is usually the best answer, you cant silence the person. Recently the Labour Party and the Green Party chose the second option, that was not to share a stage with the BNP, They hoped this would increase their voice, of course it had the exact opposite effect.

Much like the Green party trying to ban opposition speakers on climate change from parliament, they clearly dont quite understand this.
Chris Whiteside said…
You're right about the practicalities, but although I am not generally in favour of "declaratory legislation" e.g. passing a law to make a point, I think this is one of the things you have to try to write into the rules.

The legislation can only be enforced if it sinks into the hearts of the population - but that doesn't mean it is not worth making the effort.

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