Free speech and responsibility

Matthew d'Ancona has a piece in a prominent national newspaper with the subtitle

"As the political temperature soars, those who seek to govern Britain have a responsibility to speak with care"

Why, you may ask, did I introduce this piece by the subtitle rather than the title, and refrain from naming the paper concerned?

The answer is, because too many people on both sides of the political spectrum and both sides of the Brexit debate are guilty of failing to choose their language with care, and I wanted to make the point in a way which did not make it obvious which side of the aisle the article was coming from,.

The basic point of d'Ancona's article, that people who hold or aspire to political office are wise to choose their words carefully, and that you can believe in and exercise "free speech" while wording your comments in a measured way which avoids the "civic recklessness" of language which will further inflame passions and anger, is correct.

So are all his examples.

Bit it is a pity that they were all one-sided - indeed, one of the people he cites as a victim of abusive messages has also been one of the very worst offenders for "civic recklessness" over the last few days and d'Ancona makes no reference to this. It would have been so very easy to give examples of such conduct on both sides of the spectrum that I cannot avoid thinking that the failure to do so was deliberate.

And that detracts from what would otherwise have been a first class article. 

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