An interesting take on freedoms by District Judge Howard Riddle in today’s Telegraph.

The judge was passing comment on the actions of a man who set alight poppy wreaths during last Novembers Armistice Day ceremony In London.

Before that, a little background :

Emdadur Choudhury, 26, a member of Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), was guilty of a ”calculated and deliberate” insult to the dead when he burned two large plastic poppies during a two-minute silence on November 11, District Judge Howard Riddle said.

…

Choudhury, of Hunton Street, Spitalfields, east London, had denied a charge under Section 5 of the Public Order Act of burning the poppies in a way that was likely to cause “harassment, harm or distress” to those who witnessed it

Aside from wondering how exactly you insult the dead rather than the relatives of those same dead, we see yet another thought crime style prosecution with those weasel words “harassment, harm or distress” – how thin skinned we are these days.

Back to the judge who had this rather neat demonstration of doublethink :

Judge Riddle said European human rights law allowed everyone the right to freedom of expression.

But he said this freedom was not unlimited.

That old chestnut again (oft spouted by the chattering classes) – I am fully in favour of free speech as long as ….

I would have thought that it was perfectly straightforward – it is either a right or it isn’t.

You either have a straightforward statement (as in the EU declaration of human rights) or a multipage set of exceptions under which it doesn’t apply (the UK government version).

In the governments case, they are free to add to the list whenever they see fit just to keep everyone guessing whether it is safe to open their mouths (or even make Aircraft gestures of course).

Unfortunately, here in the UK we have far too many pieces of legislation which are so poorly drafted that they can be used to cover just about anything, especially in the case of the “harassment, harm/alarm and distress” which covers absolutely everything one may care to complain about.

Will the Freedoms Bill do away with it?

Unfortunately, I have to conclude – will it bollocks.

For a more eloquent take on what is freedom of expression, I would recommend the last paragraph of this post at Longriders place in which he even makes the word arse sound posh.