The Home Office has been having a hard time recently – and the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, especially so.
Yesterday, they came out all guns a blazing, with a list of people “named and shamed” who are to be excluded from entering Britain.
Obviously this is by no means a list of the only people we don’t want to have in the country, but it’s a list that shouts loudly that Britain doesn’t want undesirables visiting these shores.
What could be wrong with that?
Well for the most part, these people aren’t actually rabble rousers who are likely to cause injury or harm. They’re largely full of stupid ideas, but by officially blocking them from entering the country, and making a big song and dance about it, you can be sure that they now all have a ‘pulpit’ to shout from.
It really does no good by not letting these people come. If they’re criminals under UK law, then fair enough. And if they commit crimes when they get here, then arrest and charge them. But the idiots who feature in Louise Theroux programmes are suddenly legitimised by this behavious when really we should let them come over and have a good laugh at them.
The strangest person to be named in Michael Savage – a right-wing American talk show host – who may well say objectionable things, but no more so than any number of other right-wing American talk show hosts. In the US, they have freedom of speech (although incitement to hatred is still a crime). Quite why this man has been blocked is beyond me.
The growth of right-wing talk radio in the US is an interesting aspect of the medium – something that’s not happened in the UK (let’s face it, that kind of radio wouldn’t be legal under our laws).
An interesting book I read last year was Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio which included a chapter on Michael Savage. He’s not a pleasant person, and I wouldn’t want to listen to his show. But I don’t think I’d bar him from entering the country. Not unless he actually had done something illegal when he’d been here.
Instead he gets the oxygen of publicity, and can take quite a high-minded view – with talk of “suing Britain.”
I’d recommend reading “Shock Jocks” for an insight into this phenomena. There is a lot of partisan commercial speech radio in the US, and while much of it’s ugly, their constitution allows it. Would I want that “freedom” over here? I’m not sure I would. But that doesn’t mean I’d block their presenters from visiting the UK. We’re bigger than that. Who knows: maybe if Savage visited the country (he’s not been here for something like 25 years, and had no plans to do so), he might actually have his views altered. He’s unlikely to now.