A lawfully elected Parliamentarian from a fellow EU country is invited by members of our Parliament to speak to them. This Parliamentarian has been similarly invited by other parliaments (eg Italy, Denmark, the US) and none of their governments see a problem with hearing what the man has to say.

Yet our government-in-place objects to this (possibly illegally) whilst allowing equivalently controversial clerics from the Islamist side free reign.

I know that I’m prone to immoderate Meldrew-moments but something seems really wrong here. Does our culture not care about the principle of free speech any more? I doubt I’d agree with Wilders’ perspective – the film is hardly balanced and measured – but that’s irrelevant. All the liberties and practices built up over centuries are being washed away because people don’t care any more, and our government is too incompetent and historically ignorant to know what it is doing. These are the moments when I ponder emigration…

(note the reference to the Koran)

I think one of the things I need to work on in my therapy is why I hate the state so much. I’m sure it’s a mix of rational and irrational, but quite where the boundary comes… This I do know: people should not be afraid of their governments.