“I have always accepted – as I thought most people do – that there is just one limit to freedom of speech,” writes Nigel Farage in Friday’s Daily Mail in a eulogy to his friend, the murdered US right wing campaigner Charlie Kirk. “And that is when you cross the line from argument and opinion over to incitement to violence.”
The Reform leader adds: “All of us – from all ends of the political spectrum – need to recognise that with our freedom to speak and our opportunity to be listened to, there comes great responsibility.”
It is a theme Farage used on his GB News show on Thursday night, telling his viewers how “I spoke in the House of Commons today and said this: It is imperative that all of us in public life use sensible, measured language.
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“Don’t drag in endless historical analogies. Don’t use words that can inflame. Across the political spectrum, we have a duty to be responsible.”
How, though, did Reform respond after Lucy Connolly reacted to the horrific murders of three young children in Southport by crossing the line from argument and opinion and using words to inflame – infamously, writing “set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them”, and ultimately pleading guilty to distributing material with the intention of stirring up racial hatred?
They elevated Connolly to the status of folk hero, bringing her on to the stage of their conference in Birmingham last weekend and introducing her to loud cheers as “Britain’s favourite political prisoner”. A duty to be responsible indeed!
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