My own dislike of Old Holborn dates back to 2010 when he stood as a candidate for Cambridge and appeared at the hustings I reported on here. He describes himself as a libertarian but he struck me as an unpleasant demagogue, appealing to people’s worst instincts. Here is a profile of him in case his views are unfamiliar to you.
Recently there have been reports that he is being investigated on account of offensive tweets about Hillsborough, the Bulger murders and the Boston bombs. Now both his blog and his Twitter account appear to be unavailable.
His blog – not that I have often visited it – seems consistently unedifying. But the free speech of those with pleasantly unexceptionable opinions doesn’t generally need defending. Simon Miller doesn’t like Old Holborn’s views much either – but he makes a strong case for supporting his right to be offensive:
Free speech is non-negotiable if you want a free society. Unless you are inciting violence or other criminal behaviour, you should be free to offend and to take offence. The criminalisation of crass tweets has been happening all too frequently and we must take a stand or no one will be free.
