Some truly disturbing news from Dear Old Blighty: Conservative shock jock Michael Savage, American Westboro Baptist jackfruit Fred Waldron Phelps, and 14 other offense-giving humans have been barred from entering the U.K. due to their political views:
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she decided to make public the names of 16 people banned since October so others could better understand what sort of behaviour Britain was not prepared to tolerate. […]
"I think it's important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it's a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won't be welcome in this country," Ms Smith told GMTV.
"Coming to this country is a privilege. If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you from this country and, what's more, now we will make public those people that we have excluded. […]
"If people have so clearly overstepped the mark in terms of the way not just that they are talking but the sort of attitudes that they are expressing to the extent that we think that this is likely to cause or have the potential to cause violence or inter-community tension in this country, then actually I think the right thing is not to let them into the country in the first place. Not to open the stable door then try to close it later," Ms Smith said.
You know, I think Jacqui Smith (pictured) has convincingly demonstrated that she can't live by the free-speech rules we live by, and further, she definitely has the potential to cause "inter-community tension" between those of us who think/hope Michael Savage is a performance artist and those who don't. But unlike the governing ninnies of the non-First Amendendment West who so enthusiastically use the blunt edge of government to punish speech and policy with which they disagree, I will refrain from advocating that Smith be banned from the U.S.A. like a common mad cow.
