What Language Do You Want Them In?

Mr Ahmed said he hoped action could be taken to prevent any similar situation from happening again. 

Fat chance, it happens every hot summer, it's as certain as death and taxes/ 

“I strongly agree with the calls from local residents for a review of safety measures at West Mersea Beach, including the provision of additional life-saving equipment and clear warning signage,” he said.“While no action now can undo the pain we are suffering, we hope lessons can be learned to help prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.”

You didn't learn anyhing from all the others, did you? 

Mr Ahmed called on people to “refrain from speculating” on the events that unfolded. “During this incredibly difficult time, several inaccurate reports about what happened have been circulating within some sections of the mainstream media and on social media,” he said.“The spread of such misinformation has caused additional distress to our family, which is already enduring unimaginable grief. We respectfully ask that media organisations verify any claims that they are publishing and people refrain from speculating.

No clue as to what he's talking about here, but I not so respectfully decline to let some foreigner police my freedom of speech. I will speculate when, where and as much as I please!

We All Suspected They Did This ...

 .. and now we have proof: 

Police 'guided' the family of a hotel worker in 'toning down' their public statements after she was murdered by an asylum seeker – in case their words led to anti-immigration rioting. Rhiannon Whyte, 27, was stabbed 23 times with a screwdriver by Sudanese national Deng Majek while waiting at a train station.

Now Rhiannon's mother, Siobhan, has claimed police said they didn't want 'another Southport' when she told them her daughter's life support was to be turned off. She said: 'Did they tell us what to say? No. Did they guide us so it didn't look so aggressive? Maybe. I was aggressive – they toned it down.'

Confimation at last! 

Ms Whyte – who stresses that she is grateful for the help she received from the police in the aftermath of her daughter's death – added: 'I think they didn't want violence... they didn't want a riot.'

What help?  

When Rhiannon's family told police they were turning off her life support, officers quickly removed the migrants from the hotel. Ms Whyte added: 'Those migrants were out within two hours – I think that's because [the police] feared violence.'

See, they can do it when they want to, thus giving the lie to the claim that violence is not the way. 

It was only after Majek was sentenced that Ms Whyte mentioned the fact he had arrived in the UK on a small boat three months before the attack – and criticised Sir Keir Starmer. She said: 'The Prime Minister's got blood on his hands.'

He has, yes, but he's not alone in the government in that! 

No! You Can’t Handle The Truth!

Besieged by questions about his war on Iran and his wife’s statement on Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump tried to shift the national conversation back to his immigration crackdown by posting a graphic, distressing video of a woman in Florida being killed last week by a man he described as an “illegal immigrant” from Haiti.

Did he get it wrong? 

The video, taken by a surveillance camera outside a Fort Myers gas station, showed a man identified by authorities as a Haitian immigrant using a hammer to bludgeon to death the woman, who was reportedly a clerk at the gas station. Trump’s decision to elevate such graphic images of a woman’s death by posting it for his millions of followers on Truth Social was startling, but in keeping with a pattern of using shocking video of violence attributed to undocumented immigrants to sow fear about immigration and justify mass deportation.

No, the man was an immigrant though there’s every chance that he was legally in the States, like so many imported by the Donald's predecessor. And so it transpired… 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that the suspected attacker in custody was “released” in 2022 by the Biden administration and given temporary protected status, although it is unclear whether that information is accurate.

Meanwhile, over in the UK, someone else has a problem with people's free speech:

Sadiq Khan has called on ministers to take significantly stronger action against social media companies that spread disinformation after a study showed a surge in hostile accounts posting falsehoods about London’s crime rates and integration.

In an intervention on what he called “the outrage economy”, the London mayor, who has also written to social media firms demanding change, said a lack of action could prompt more domestic terrorism by people who believe conspiracy theories they find online.

What a world we live in, where people are more outraged about people breaking the Eleventh Commandment (thou shalt not notice!) than any of the other Ten…  

This Is Why We Love Social Media!

And why politicians don’t. Stella Creasy is upset. The peasantry are mean to her:

The slogan “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution” holds new meaning in a world where an MP simply singing along to Robyn is labelled a sign of national decline. A tweet celebrating a Saturday night in my own constituency has now been viewed by almost 1 million people – and many more have offered an opinion.

Oh noes! The great British public shouldn't be allowed an opinion! Shut it down!  

Egged on by political opponents and the presenters of GB News, these have included death threats, vile commentary on my appearance and accusations that I’m not fit for office, all because I went to a silent disco.

No, it's because your party is loathed for good reason, as are you yourself. Not for your dancing, for your policies. 

Joy is now seen as something that should shame politicians – as though having frazzled and miserable people in our parliament is good for decision-making.

Your decision making?  It's awful, no matter what emotional state you're in at the time. 

Underlying this is more than just embarrassment about seeing a middle-aged MP dance, it’s a concerted attempt by some to drown out their opponents’ voices through character assassination.

Infamy, infamy, that've all got it in for me!  

Abuse and violence towards politicians is at an all-time high. Every day, MPs trade stories and sympathies about criminal proceedings against those who have harassed them, offices being attacked and poison pen letters, and fears they have for their families and staff.

Yet they do nothing about the causes of it. What did you do when Southend's MP was hacked to death in his office by one of your imports, besides import more of them, while ensuring his daughter's pleas for a public enquiry were ignored!  

It’s not hard to see why making rage-baiting statements is appealing in a world where the next generation will end up poorer than the last. Frustration and fear about the future are widespread and understandable. Politics seems incapable of offering answers at a time when they are needed.

Maybe then we should stop looking to politicians to provide them? 

It is also why dismissing the social-media cesspit misses how behaviour online feeds the real world, as it sets the expectation that we politicians deserve what we get. Since Elon Musk took over, X has promoted conservative material and demoted alternative perspectives.

You've got Bluesky for those.

But public debate and good policy-making only thrive when people can speak freely and listen carefully...

Then stop locking up people for doing just that, and start to argue that people shouldn't be allowed to use the law to silence people arguing against woke policies!  

... it is noticeable that attempts at public shaming are disproportionately handed out to women and people of colour.

Oh, give it a rest!  

If we want to stop politicians being punched, we need to stop using them as punchbags.

Nobodies punching you, more's the pity. We, the public, however, that's another matter... 

And I Bet I Know Who Is Looking To See If He Can Implement The Same Policy Here...

 ...I'm sure he'll have his beady, ever blinking eyes on it.

“State media and government spokespersons have already signaled that this is a permanent shift, warning that unrestricted access will not return after 2026.”

Reality And Common Sense Makes Another Labour Crackpot Idea Obsolete....

 ...even before the bill can get voted on! 

The Free Speech Union said: 'This is a landmark victory, not least because it renders the Government's efforts to roll out an official definition of 'Islamophobia' largely pointless.

Mr Lee, an atheist, holds the belief that Islam 'particularly in a traditional form - rather than a reformed, modernised, moderate and Westernised form - is problematic and deserving of criticism', the tribunal heard. He argued that his intention is to raise legitimate questions and generate debate, saying that the IFoA's treatment of his beliefs is 'problematic' for western democracies.

They sacked him for his beliefs, not even expressed in the workplace, but on social media.  

At a preliminary hearing held by video link at the London Central Employment Tribunal in July of this year, Employment Judge David Khan ruled that Mr Lee had established that he genuinely held the pleaded belief, which meets the definition of a 'protected belief' under section 10(2) of the Equality Act 2010. The judge wrote: 'I do not find that these tweets and the pleaded belief are mutually exclusive. Nor incompatible.

'I find that the claimant's evidence in relation to these tweets, that he was inveighing against the offending doctrines and practices because they continued to be treated as authentic and officially sanctioned by Islamic leaders, was not inconsistent with the pleaded belief.'

Another triumph for the Free Speech Union! 

'If describing Islam as "backward", "a con trick", "a dangerous cult", "the root of the evil" and calling the Prophet Mohammed a "monster" are all expressions of an "Islamic-critical" belief that's protected by the Equality Act, trying to ban people from saying these things in the workplace won't be possible.

Not that it'll stop HR Karens from trying in future, after all, it's not their money, is it?  

'The judge in this case has grasped the important distinction between disrespecting a belief and disrespecting a person who holds that belief. 'Too often, robust criticism of Islam is treated as a form of harassment against Muslims and conflating the two has had a chilling effect on free speech.'

Indeed so. I hope the Met Police is watching this verdict closely. 

It's Not 'Anti Democracy' To Stop Speaking To You, Natalie...

After all, you aren't the sole media outlet in the world.

A Reform council leader’s decision to ban his councillors from engaging with a prominent local newspaper is a “massive attack on local democracy” and a sign of things to come should the party form the next government, the outlet’s editor has warned.

WTAF? Aren't there other newspapers and radio stations then? 

In an unprecedented move, Nottinghamshire county council’s four-month-old Reform administration has said it will no longer deal with the Nottingham Post, its online edition and a team of BBC-funded local democracy journalists that it manages.

Ah, I see.  Such an important source for news that when I loaded it up just now (fighting my way through all the adverts), there was no sign of this most important issue:

Nigel Farage is already facing calls to intervene in the row, with local MPs accusing Reform of “rank hypocrisy” over its previous claims to support free speech and transparency.

 Yet as many people have pointed out, not spreaking to a particular journalist is no transgression against free speech.

In an interview with the Guardian, Natalie Fahy, the editor of the Nottingham Post and Nottinghamshire Live, said “This is a worrying sign of potentially things to come if Reform wins the next election. What you’re seeing here in Nottinghamshire is probably a microcosm of how it will be across the whole of the UK if Nigel Farage becomes prime minister. You are just going to see this kind of shutting down of questioning.

You're so far up yourself, Natalie, you must be talking out of the top of your head. 

“They need to be answerable to the people who elected them. We don’t take a political stance. We’re not anti-Reform. We’re just trying to find out what’s going on.”

They are answerable to the people who elected them - at the ballot box. Not when they are buying something to line the budgie's cage. 

Atta Girl, Come Out Swinging!

 After all, what have you got to lose?

A woman who was jailed for stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers has said she was made to be "Sir Keir Starmer's political prisoner". Lucy Connolly, from Northampton, was released on Thursday after serving 40% of her 31-month prison sentence.

And you'll now see the panoply of State arrayed against her as a result. And every talk show host and comedian and two-bit columnist in the land will have a sly dig, knowing it will find favour with the establishment.  

"I, for some reason, seem to have had the most coverage, but there are people that are in equally awful situations that shouldn't be in there," she said, speaking to journalist Allison Pearson, who had campaigned for Connolly's release. "I think with Starmer he needs to practise what he preaches.

 He's find that difficult, since what he preaches changes when the wind shifts....

"He's a human rights lawyer, so maybe he needs to look at what people's human rights are; what freedom of speech means; and what the laws are in this country."

Ah, if only it was the human rights of the British people that he cared about, but it's not. 

Connolly also told the Telegraph she was "upset and angry beyond belief" after the murders in Southport, and that she knew "how that feels because I've lost a child". "Of course,[the tweet] wasn't my finest moment and I don't, I definitely don't advocate violence or burning anything down or anything of the sort." She said she was considering legal action against the police over a statement that was released by the Crown Prosecution Service after her sentencing, which claimed she had told police in an interview that "she did not like illegal immigrants, external" and "that children were not safe from them".

Good. It's about time ther police were given a bloody nose over their partisanship. 

Her comments had been "massively twisted and used against me", she claimed.

It's who they are now, Lucy, it's what they do.... 

Without Human Agency..?

Of all the MSM, the 'Guardian' was the only one to admit to human agency behind this latest atrocity.

President of the State Criminal Police Office, Andreas Stenger, said at a press conference that the suspected driver - a 40-year-old German man - shot himself in the mouth when he was arrested, local newspaper Mannheim24 reports.

A German man? Or one of the 'new Germans' we are left to wonder. 

The man reportedly used a blank round and is currently being treated in hospital. His condition is thought to be stable. The public prosecutor told local media that there are indications that the perpetrator is mentally ill.

He has a record: 

His latest conviction was in 2018, when he had to pay a fine for a hateful comment on Facebook.

Interesting... 

 

A Rat Getting Out Before The Ship…What? Not ‘Sinks’, This Time...

In a post on Meta's Facebook on Thursday, Sir Nick, a former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said he was departing the company after nearly seven years. He will be replaced by his current deputy and Republican Joel Kaplan, who previously served as deputy chief of staff in the White House during President George W Bush's administration, and is known for handling the company's relations with Republicans.

Not even inaugurated yet, and he's having an effect!  

"Meta, like other tech companies, has been rushing to curry favour with the incoming Trump administration," she told the BBC. Sir Nick leaving Meta, and increased political polarisation on social platforms, suggests the company may shift how it moderates political speech, she added.

For the better, I'm sure. And that's exactly how it turned out. You know you're on the right track when you look at who you're upsetting... 

Kafka Strikes Again...

So, following on from last week's nonsense, I've now received this:

 

I asked for a review, but clearly they still thought it breached their guidelines. So...here's the screenshots. I can't amemd the bit they don't like in order to republish, because I can't see anything that could be classed as 'hate speech'. So it remains in 'trash'. 

If anyone else can see what they find objectionable, do please enlighten me...

Something Starmer Should Take Note Of…

President Nicolás Maduro said he had ordered a 10-day block on access to X in Venezuela, accusing the owner, Elon Musk, of using the social network to promote hatred after the country’s disputed presidential election. Associated Press (AP) journalists in Caracas found that by Thursday night posts had stopped loading on X on two private telephone services and the state-owned Movilnet.

Another thin-skinned socialist dictator who hates the very thought that ordinary people have an outlet? 

Electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner but had yet to produce voting tallies. The opposition claims to have collected records from more than 80% of the 30,000 electronic voting machines nationwide showing the winner was its candidate, Edmundo González. Musk used the social network to accuse the self-proclaimed socialist leader of a “great electoral fraud”.

“Shame on the dictator Maduro,” Musk said in a post on Monday.

It seems Musk is the only one speaking truth to power these days. No wonder those with reason to have a guilty conscience and who are precariously clinging to power are frothing about it, eh, Kier? 

Don't The Police Have Better Things To Do With Their Time?

Sadly, these days, the answer's 'Probably not'!

The boss of the missing persons charity supporting Jay Slater's family has vowed to wage war on cruel trolls who sent him misleading and untrue tip-offs about the youngster before he was found dead on Tenerife earlier this week.

Matthew Searle, chief executive of LBT Global, says he received hundreds of malicious emails, phone calls and messages with false information about the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer after he disappeared on June 17.

He has passed messages sent to him and Jay's mother, Debbie Duncan, to police to investigate under telecommunications laws.

And just how are they supposed to prove they are knowingly false reports? Since Britain is stuffed to the gills with young petty criminal chavs who all dress alike?  

The malignant messages included false ransom demands from people claiming to have Jay in their custody.

That one at least should be easy to prove! Even for UK police. 

Others included claims that Jay had been seen in a Sainsbury's in Basingstoke, watching a football match in Germany and on a Eurostar train. Mr Searle said the bad actors had delayed genuine investigations into Jay's disappearance because he had to 'follow up every single lead'.

Since he's not the police, but a private citizen sticking his oar in, it's be hard to prove that the actual search was hindered in any way... 

It is an offence under the Communications Act 2003 to send a false message that causes 'annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety to another'. Those found guilty of the offence can face up to six months in prison.

Many of those sending the cruel false tips did so using 'burner' SIM cards and single-use email addresses, making it harder for him to identify those who might be responsible.

So what are the police supposed to do? 

Mr Searle is, it seems, no lover of freedom of speech: 

Mr Searle, speaking to Sky News earlier this week, says he intends to speak to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper about the damage and hurt caused by online trolls who turned Jay's tragic disappearance into a true-crime free-for-all.

'Ultimately it hinders the search and it's terrifyingly horrible for a family that are going through this,' he said.

'Wherever there's a real-life crime drama acting out in front of our eyes on television, half the population need to jump on Facebook, set up a Facebook group… to tell the world "what really happened".

'It's really worrying to the point where our charity thinks it's time that it has to stop.'

Good luck with that, Mr Searle, I very much doubt even Labour are so bonkers they are going to go to war on Facebook on behalf of this 'cause'. Although one can never tell.  

So, Just Stop Trying....

Comedian Stephen Merchant has said he feels 'the Left' is 'policing' comedy with 'sensitivities that seem out of proportion to the joke'. Merchant, 49, who co-wrote The Office, said comedians had become more cautious because they didn't want to spend weeks on social media trying to justify a gag.

...since you never can justify it to these fanatics, and why would you even try?

In an interview, he said: 'There's always been policing of comedy, of there being... guardrails.The difference is that it used to feel like it was the Right that was policing it. 'It feels like it's the Left that's doing it now, and it's allowed the Right to become the arbiters of free speech. Which does feel like quite a significant shift.'

If so, you really haven't understood those two political terms at all.... 

Oh, Edward, If Only That Were True...

Edward Skidelsky – director of the Committee for Academic Freedom, academics fighting to maintain free expression on campuses – said: 'It's extraordinary that in 21st century Britain eavesdroppers can be rewarded, and a student punished for remarks made to a friend in the privacy of his room.

If it was true, we'd not see an organisation like yours so busy, would we?

At the time of the complaint, Mr Ivinson – who had just started his first year of a philosophy degree – was alone with the door closed. Mr Ivinson, who is 6ft 5in with a deep intonation, said his voice often carried without him realising. When an officer from the university's estate patrol banged on his door to tell him his female neighbour had complained, the mature student was shaken. 'It was like the Stasi had come to my door,' he said. 'He stuck his foot in my door and said you've been saying some very offensive things.'

To whom? Was he on the phone or talking to himself? 

Mr Ivinson was called to a disciplinary hearing and grilled by university officials.

Why did he attend? The thing to do with kangaroo courts is to ignore them!  

He told The Mail on Sunday: 'The first thing they read out was that I had said veganism is wrong. I couldn't believe it – I thought I was mishearing them. I asked them to repeat it three or four times because I didn't believe I was sitting there for saying that veganism is wrong.' He says he made the comments about gender fluidity and veganism, but maintains other statements he was alleged to have made had been misheard, such as that President Assad of Syria was 'a good guy'. He says he stated the dictator was 'not a good guy'.He also denies saying 'people should not parade their sexuality in a gay bar'.

I suspect it's not the veganism comment that landed him before Exeter's Star Chamber, but the gender one.  

He says he apologised to the officials for the disturbance but maintained his right to speak freely in his own room. 'I was totally private apart from that someone heard me through a brick wall.' Mr Ivinson attempted to challenge the decision by Exeter – a member of the prestigious Russell Group of top universities – but says that this was batted down.

How? They must have a process, did he meet its conditions, or not? There's a lot missing from this account.  

Exeter University was approached for comment but did not respond.

Maybe they did comment, but in the privacy of their own rooms and no-one overheard?  

And How Exactly Could It Do That?

The 'Guardian' takes to its fainting couch on hearing that people swap memes and jokes on social media:

Among the messages are racist comments about a black Labour MP, who has been a frequent target of racist abuse online. The conversations also include homophobic memes about a prominent TV presenter. The Guardian has chosen not to name them but offered specific details about the content of the messages and the groups’ geographic locations to the CNC. The messages also show explicit images of nudity, as well as racist imagery and descriptions of graphic paedophilic acts. They also show men ridiculing female colleagues at the sites for their appearance and sexual attractiveness.

In other words, it shows that they are human beings and not robots in uniform. Which is quite refreshing. And so long as they aren't glued to their phones while they are supposed to be watching the nuclear sites, who really cares? 

Apart from those determined to waste court time, I suppose...

The groups also suggest that cultural concerns at Sellafield may extend to a range of other sensitive sites, raising questions about conduct within the nuclear sector as a whole. Sources told the Guardian that they fear a failure to address a negative working culture and concerns ranging from bullying to a lack of trust in management could ultimately undermine the safety of some of the most hazardous sites in Europe.

Errr...OK. How, exactly? 

Studies examining safety in the nuclear industry have found that working culture can feed into how sites are run. A 2020 report from the Office for Nuclear Regulation argued that poor culture fed into events which led to nuclear disasters, including Chornobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011.

Gosh, I've always thought Chernobyl was caused by poor soviet era H&S practices and bad communication, not by Boris & Ivan swapping грязная шутка* on their mobiles... 

*'dirty jokes'

Employers, Not Masters Or Parents...

Maureen Martin was accused of gross misconduct after her employer, a housing association, claimed her campaign pledge to promote 'natural marriage' was discriminatory and would offend gay and trans people.

Ms Martin sued London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) for unfair dismissal, discrimination and harassment in a case called 'an attack on democracy'. Last night she told The Mail on Sunday she was happy with the out-of-court settlement but described her treatment as chilling.

It seems the fact you are employed by a company to perform a role during work time gives some of them the right to assume control over every aspect of your life, as Longrider points out.  

'I should have had a right to express my own Christian beliefs in my own private time and should not have been required to self-censor my beliefs or be forced out of my job.

'I will be standing again as mayoral candidate in 2024. My message will not have changed. You can fire me, but you cannot silence me.'

Good for her. But where do these companies get the bare-faced cheek to imagine they can control every aspect of our lives? They pay us for our time, and that's all. 

Perhaps Ms Martin should have simply billed them for every hour she worked on her campaign instead?

'Eppur si muove...'

A retired biomedical scientist who posted 'only women have a cervix' has been booted from the profession after a tribunal ruled he was 'inflaming gender discrimination'.

Blood expert Malcolm Needs was accused of uploading a string of social media posts that a disciplinary panel found were ‘seriously offensive and discreditable’.

You've 'booted someone from a profession' that he no longer works in..? What uttely pointless grandstanding...

What did he say that so enraged you that you felt you needed to waste your own time like this? What awful, beyond-the-pale opinions did he hold that were so very different from the man on the Clapham omnibus, that made you decide to show yourselves up as irrelevant woke authoritarians??

One of the now-deleted posts he was punished for sharing said: 'Only women have a cervix. There, I said it, it’s not difficult. Women also have a right to women-only spaces. Speaking up in defence of women’s rights doesn’t mean we can’t respect how others wish to live their lives.'

Awful! 

While in another post, the pension targeted migrants crossing the Channel, tweeting: 'And make them pay, like they paid the people smugglers to come over in the first place, and give our own taxpayers a rest”

Heresey! 

Several social media posts disparaged the Black Lives Matter movement...

Someone stop him! 

Oh, wait. You can't.

But a defiant Needs refused to attend the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) disciplinary hearing. 

Needs, now of South Devon, ‘voluntarily absented himself’ from the disciplinary hearing by sending an email telling the tribunal that he was ‘happily retired’.

Well, quite. It's a wonder he didn't tell them where to shove their pointless Star Tribunal summons and exactly how far up they could shove it... 

The HCPTS hearing was told that a senior biomedical scientist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine alerted regulators to Needs’ tweets.

And now every other biomedical scientist will be wondering who it is who thinks freedom of speech shouldn't exist for them... 

I'm Betting The Crowd Already Knew, Liz...

...so not sure the complaint of 'outing' has any legs:

Elizabeth Wright, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said McConnell's comments had 'crossed the line'.

She added: 'People have the right to hold opinions and express their views.

'But when words cross the line between a legitimate expression of religious views, and become distressing and threatening, the CPS will prosecute offenders if our legal test is met.

'In this case, by repeatedly referring to the female victim as "this gentleman" and "a man in woman’s clothing", using a microphone in a public place, McConnell’s comments crossed the line between a legitimate expression of his religious views, to become a distressing and threatening personal attack.'

Meanwhile, in Leeds:  

Members of the public and local businesses in Leeds raised concerns of hate speech from people who try to convert others to religion in the city centre.

It led to the Labour-run local council teaming up with West Yorkshire Police to issue a new code of conduct and tell preachers they are committed to respecting the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Article 10 rights to freedom of expression of all, but 'recognise that this is a qualified right and may be limited to prevent disorder or crime.'

And it seems the definition of 'disorder and crime' is now expanded to include being told something you don't want to hear. 

And let's be clear here - this is a legitimate freedom of speech question, and not in any way equitable to the people approached by police, usually for their own safety, shouting anti-monarchist rhetoric in the middle of a crowd of mourners lining the late Queen's funeral cortege. 

I see no contradiction between the two, and at any other time, don't believe the police should move in on them, either.

Choosing Your Battles...

Yesterday, a 'Daily Mail' story was tweeted out:

 

And we were off to the races! It went round the world at the speed of...well, electrons. But people should have heeded the words of Twitter, which before you retweet something in a news story or article, asks you if you want to read it first. 

Because he wasn't jailed for that. He was suspended for it (rightly or wrongly), and it was how he took that suspension and what he then did - refusing to stay away from school premises - that got him arrested and jailed. As it would have done anyone.

Frankly, he sounds more than a little unhinged. Not the free speech martyr I want to get behind.