POPPY BURNERS


The following was posted on my Facebook page. 

POPPY BURNERS IN COURT 23RD FEB LIKE THIS PAGE TO LOCK THEM UP.

Below this headline is a picture of what I presume to be one of the defendants.[1] It boasts over 92,000 Likes and I see no reason to question the figure.
This is an extremely depressing statement of our lack of passion for freedom of expression, though sadly it does not surprise me. We have been living in a country culturally hostile to dissent for some time. A major player in this respect has been the popular press; particularly the Daily Mail and the Murdoch owned Sun newspaper, which have done so much to create a vigilante climate against unpopular opinion.
I visited the Facebook page from which the post had come. Amongst the myriad of often semi literate outpourings of rage was the following,  ‘….NOOO whats [sic] funny is your dissin [sic] our hero's thats [sic] give there lives over 100 years of hero's that gave there lives for the freedom of our country so you can live here and practice your own religion and form your on [sic] opinion without being shoot.’ The writer appears to be unaware of the irony in writing this on a page that demands that people should be locked up for expressing an opinion.
 I should also say that I also found a quite a few comments taking issue with the views expressed on the page.

I would say to those ‘outraged’ by the poppy burners exactly the same thing as I have said to those members of the Islamic faith who seem to experience some sort of psychic wounding every time their faith is criticized. Get over it, you will find that if you adopt a sanguine attitude to such criticism/protests you will not cease to function, you will arise from bed the next morning to find a world unaltered.  

Finally, if there is outrage here, and I believe there is, it is that anyone in this country should face imprisonment for expressing an opinion, no matter how offensively demonstrated.


[1] I have chosen not to reproduce the picture here since a) I do not know who the person is and b) having visited the Facebook page from which it emanated found a distinct air of vigilantism abut the site.Having visited this page I would be grateful for your feedback, either tick one of the boxes below or make a comment via the comments button.

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