Whatever has happened to our country when a person cannot quote from one of Winston Churchill's books? Churchill, one of this country's greatest Prime Ministers, yet we cannot quote him! I thought that the UK was the land of Magna Carta, free speech, but it seems no longer the case!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... peech.html

Wow. Whatever happened to freedom of speech? I wonder if the Daily Mail will be raided now for printing the quote in full?

Probably a publicity coup for the bloke, we'd have never read of this if it only went out to the eight saturday shoppers listening.

Maybe, but it's the principle of free speech that concerns me, it seems to be forever chipped away, and we need to be careful that we don't end up with no freedom of speech - we already have the EU holding numerous referendums if the first ones don't give the required result. 'Political Correctness' is an insidious process that undermines our freedoms, just look at what damage its done already!

It's seriously worrying isn't it. Is freedom of speech enshrined anywhere in our law? Seems like with all these 'hate crime' laws that there really isn't a concept of free speech at all. We need a UK Bill of Rights where these basic rights are clearly codified in law with no caveats. I would also enshrine freedom of the internet as well.

I've heard it said that freedom of speech does not give you the right to shout 'FIRE' in a theatre of the right to offend, but I think it does, you either have total freedom of speech or you don't. In fact in the US, freedom of speech does mean freedom to offend as found by the US Supreme Court in favour of the Phelps family picketing funerals:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snyder_v._Phelps

Okay, this is quite a heinous example but the principle remains the same - freedom of speech IS freedom to offend.

We can be outraged all we want, but what are WE going to do about it?

Freedom of speech is like pregnancy, you're either pregnant or you're not, you're either got free speech or you haven't.

I agree with Bermudan we need a Bill of Rights enshrined in law, plus, like the US, a written constitution, rather than the vague nonsense we have now.

Can you imagine Americans standing for someone being arrested for quoting from Martin Luther King or JFK. Just look at their reaction when revoking the 2nd amendment is discussed - you may not agree with it, but by God they fight for it.

It's poetic justice that by arresting him, the effect has been millions more people hearing what he had to say.

These [insert your own word here] who did similar during a military funeral weren't arrested. One law for them and one for us.

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Lets be careful out there !

On the point of the term 'free speech' - I believe that this term is misunderstood and misused

It does not mean anyone can say anything, as the feelings of others - including being truthful and not inciting hatred are also part of UK law.

However, reading between the lines, it seems that this guy's failure to move on when lawfully requested to do so was the main cause of his arrest. Whatever happened to get him nicked , he has got his message out to thousands thanks to his arrest!

He was arrested for obstruction.
The paper spun the story out of context as it makes for a better one.