Banning freedom of speech

Recently a new phenomenon (for Britain anyway) has arrived, the opinion of those on the far left that some subjects are beyond discussion, such as immigration (Gordon Brown called a woman who tried a bigot), gay marriage (Nick Clegg said anyone who objects is a bigot) and global warming ('the science is settled').

This means a self appointed authority figure, often and usually not one of the group they claim to represent, such as Camden or Islington councils banning words such as 'blind' or 'disabled' (words are also chosen from removal as well as topics) despite most blind and disabled people realising they are valid descriptions. 'Differently sighted' or 'visual difficulties' could mean having astigmatism and losing your glasses, blind means you can't see. These bans can actually become dangerous and actually hurt the people they pretend to help.

But stopping discussion on anything but inciting crime or direct hatred, like promoting genocide or holocaust denial, where thousands of survivors and millions of bodies still tell the genuine story, is the most sinister development of the 21st century. Those on the right may be considered by some to be opinionated and bigoted, but so far have yet to find a single topic off limits. If someone wants to call Israel apartheid rather than get Shirley Williams or Nicky Gavron from the people's republics of Haringey or Williams world of leftist sociology to slap a ban notice on them I simply let them ramble, offer them a few facts showing they are deranged, and move on. I wasn't hurt, they weren't hurt, and in a perfect world they may even have learnt something. But there are topics I believe are equally 'settled' on my own side, such as car usage, where some nutter yet again wanted to ban them yesterday on the radio, which to me is like banning blood or oxygen, but I'd still never try and shut them down. After all, they'd still think it and try and carry it out even if they couldn't mention the 'c' word (car).

I'll pitch two against each other here, cars and gay marriage. Now if you restrict the use of cars then people across the country will lose their jobs as it's the only way to get there, not see their friends and families, and all the other normal activities possible in a civilised society. Stop gay marriage and what happens? You have gay men living in civil partnerships with the rights of married people. The difference being married would be?

This is not about promoting gay marriage or saving the planet, but controlling the masses, and getting the loony left to do their dirty work as useful idiots. No one on the right or centre has or would ever dream of banning discussion on any non-criminal topic, so what does this say about the left?