Here's a thought for the 'progressive' politically correct left. Perhaps it was their tactic of yelling 'racist' at anyone who dares criticise immigration, that caused Brexit. The left's
censorship effectively pushed commonly held views on immigration under the carpet. Now if these views had been allowed to be aired, then perhaps David Cameron would have realised that the referendum was not such a good idea, and not called it in the
first place. Perhaps censors everywhere should be reminded that censorship may block the airing of views but it doesn't stop people from holding those views.
The New Statesmen is reporting about a campaign group called Hope Not Hate, that seems to hate free speech.
The group has spent a couple of weeks seeking out examples of texts denying the Holocaust sold on the Waterstones, Foyles, WHSmith
and Amazon websites. The group has published its findings in a paper called Turning the Page on Hate , and is urging the retailers to remove these texts, which range from what are deemed dangerous to Holocaust denials to far right books.
Since the campaign began, Foyles appears to have removed numerous works from its website. However, its chief executive Paul Currie said:
This is a difficult scenario for all booksellers given the width and scale of publishing and the perennial issue of censoring from all aspects of life what people can read.
WHSmith also appears to
have removed some books from its website since the campaign launched.
At the time of writing, Waterstones retains the works Hope Not Hate listed. Waterstones' owner James Daunt told Hope Not Hate, What should we censor? he asked rhetorically,
refusing to remove the titles:
It is not our position to censor this listing beyond the existing measures we take to exclude self-published books that may potentially be offensive.
Index on
Censorship's chief executive Jodie Ginsberg. Encouraging bookshops not to stock certain content because it's considered hateful I think is problematic, she explains:
When you're suggesting [the removal of books from]
some of the largest bookshops in the country, which are the ones most people can access, then you are limiting people's access to information... Anything that limits people's ability to find out information is a threat to freedom of expression.
