Bum Threat
What an interesting week this has been for free speech. We’ve had students rioting, which hasn’t happened since the 70s or 80s and a man was found guilty of making a joke.
Should we be surprised? After all we are living through one of those periods in history, where the establishment are struggling to keep up with changes in the ways we communicate. You only have to look at the way Nick Clegg used Twitter, during his campaign to lose the election and bum David Cameron. The moment he’d achieved both of those goals he dropped Twitter and rode off into the bumset.
What he didn’t understand was that Twitter is a community in itself. In many ways it is a better community than the one I can see out of my window. It is certainly more fun to watch television with. In fact I’ve never watching television with my neighbour. Well, we watched a water main explode during the summer but that can’t compare with watching a drama documentary about Gary Glitter with @michaellegge or the TV BAFTAs with @Collingsa.
The problem is: governments and lawyers view Twitter as a form of publication. Which is a wholly inaccurate definition, in fact, if I were to compare it to anything, it would be a chat with some people down the pub and you wouldn’t expect to be prosecuted for a joke made in the Coach and Horses, would you?
Wow! This blog has been rambling and disorganized and completely unoriginal. Thousands of people are blogging about the same subject and they will be far better than me at it. At the moment I can’t comprehend how such an inoffensive comment could land a man in court, but then, I’m not easily offended.
So I’m going to leave it there, no lives were lost and a man lost his job as a financial adviser, which is only second to estate agent on my list of ‘cunt’ jobs. However a line has been crossed, protestation must be made and lawyers tasked, before we all find ourself in the dock.
I’m going to drink wine now and blow up an airport with my bomb cock.
Update 13th November 2010: I’ve discovered that he wasn’t a financial adviser. Sorry! My mistake.
