The end of the free press....

David Davies' campaign to scrap Section 5 of the Public Order Act is finally bearing fruit -

"Free speech campaigners have hailed a vote by the House of Lords to scrap a draconian law that made it a crime simply to insult someone. The controversial legislation led to countless arrests of ordinary people for making jokes and expressing opinions about religion and sexuality. Section 5 of the Public Order Act criminalised ‘insulting’ words and behaviour."

So scrapping Section 5 will make everything all right, will it? Er, well no. Section 4A states -

"A person is guilty of an offence if, with intent to cause a person harassment, alarm or distress, he uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,thereby causing that or another person harassment, alarm or distress."

So one-time "equalities" spokesperson and full-time manhating bigot Lynn Featherstone - who as overseas development minister is too busy to notice all those foreign aid kickbacks - should be taken very seriously when she calls for a journalist to be sacked for insulting sex perverts - 

"Suzanne Moore today issued a defiant response to critics who accused her of upsetting transsexuals, insisting: 'People died for my right to offend you'....She sparked controversy last week when, in New Statesman article ‘Seeing Red: the power of female anger’, she wrote that modern women were expected to look like 'Brazilian transsexuals'."

You don't need press censorship when you can use existing legislation to stifle free speech and the freedom of the press. Welcome to twenty-first century fascist Britain.