IN regard to the debate sparked by Jeremy Clarkson’s article in The Sun, I do not think that misogyny should be a soft option, in claims of the defence of free speech. Surely the purpose of free speech has higher aspirations than that, the comedy of Lenny Bruce I believe being a celebrated example of the championing of all peoples’ right to freedom of expression.
Human rights legislation opens up societal competitiveness. For instance, the UK Government raised a challenge to the incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scottish law. This is something which some might find incongruous, given that the UK Government is already signed up to the convention in principle.
READ MORE: Jeremy Clarkson to still host ITV's 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'
Women’s liberties have been hard won. Many women doing necessary work during the Great War were dismissed in 1918, the implication being that a woman’s place was in the home. It was only in 1922 that women were admitted to Oxford University and the civil service. In Afghanistan it has been recently reported that young women are to be barred from a university education, on top of all the other affronts to their civil liberties.
Given the unprecedented level of abuse that seems to be directed at women and girls, including it is widely reported via social media, I would suggest that misogyny, should at least be incorporated as an aggravating factor in the assessment of hate crimes. It is surely up to democratic countries to defend the rights of women and girls and I believe we would be a much poorer society for a loss of their public face.
Peter Gorrie
Edinburgh
DOES he even like himself, this bloke?
Look in the mirror and get the boak?
He mistakes abuse for harmless fun,
on his platform of Murdoch’s Sun.
It’s all just banter, he might write,
a humour with the viper’s bite!
it’s not banter, it’s simply bile,
I do not see the recipient smile!
Be you of colour, disabled, a Scot,
he shall stir you in his hatred pot:
he’s a nasty excuse for a human,
God help you, dear, if you’re a woman!
Yet there he is in The Sun, on TV,
being the idiot he loves to be:
one thinks it’s attention that he craves,
as he talks rot and rants and raves.
This horrible man, this human pest,
makes me use the word “detest”:
only Thatcher, in my memory,
brought that description, Jeremy!
Idiots like he are not worth tuppence,
and one day get their comeuppance;
Go off to your cesspit, if you please,
and give good folk quiet and peace.
George Robertson
Edinburgh
WHAT the hell has gone wrong with society generally in the UK? Jeremy Clarkson’s comments in The Sun about our First Minister and Meghan Markle have been well documented. What is really scary though is that The Sun’s editor didn’t throw Clarkson’s piece in the bin and there has been no apology for publishing his hateful diatribe. Around 60 cross-party Westminster MPs wrote to The Sun editor demanding an apology and that action should be taken against Clarkson. However, only 60-odd out of 650! Just 10% of them! Also that popular family quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? will still be hosted by this man.
There will no doubt be many who defend his right to share his views in one of the most popular tabloid newspapers in the UK on the basis of free speech. I bet many of them though are just like that other awful individual Elon Musk. They love free speech when it chimes with their views. When it doesn’t they cancel it. They constantly bang on about “woke” students cancelling folk with their views, but don’t like it when they are accused likewise.
READ MORE: Jeremy Clarkson column receives highest ever number of Ipso complaints
Brexit is an excellent example of the swivel-eyed ones cancelling the free speech of those “remoaners” that they detest. Anyone having the temerity to state the bleeding obvious that Brexit is a disaster is shouted down. More commonly though, these people are just airbrushed from news and current affairs programmes. Of course our democratic mandate to hold an independence referendum has also been well and truly cancelled too.
Clarkson stated, “Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way.” Well I’m the same age as you, Jeremy, and I can tell you I most certainly don’t think like you. My wish for 2023 is that there is a massive public backlash against those with hateful views, whatever they are about. I’m no haudin my breath though!
Ivor Telfer
Dalgety Bay, Fife
JEREMY Clarkson’s words of “wisdom” and “wit” are on a par with what he says he would like to thrown at a naked Meghan Markle, and will go down well on the kind of speakers' circuit that pays the likes of Boris Johnson £1m for four gigs. It will also go down well at south-eastern dinner parties and restaurants. The fact that it also goes down well on English talking-heads shows says all you need to know about the EBC.
Donald Anderson
Glasgow
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel