Writing Is on the Wall for Freedom of Speech

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Byline: NORMAN TEBBIT

GEORGE STAUNTON, a 78-year-old veteran of the Second World War, was arrested while writing graffiti on a wall in Liverpool.

You might think Mr Staunton deserved to be hauled off, like any foulmouthed youngster spraying obscenities on the wall, but it was not like that.

He was putting up posters for the United Kingdom Independence Party, of which he is a supporter but not a member, and to add a bit more spice he wrote on the wall something very, very obscene indeed: 'Don't forget the 1945 war' and 'Free speech for England'.

Turning aside from hunting down murderers, bank robbers and child abusers, the mighty justice system charged him with causing 'racially aggravated criminal damage'.

A little way north of Liverpool, Scottish Nationalists are telling us not to forget the '45 - that is the events of 1745 - and calling for 'Freedom from England'. Nothing racial …