Freedom and order
Sir: You are right (June 29) to point to the connection between disregard for the law and the attack on free speech. The two simply cannot be separated. The law allows each man to live in peace with his neighbours within the framework of society; hence it allows each man to express his own views without fear of attack or retaliation from those who disagree with him. If free speech is denied then democratic society as enshrined in our.legal code is under attack, too.
Similarly, each man has the right peacefully to register a protest against the views of those with whom he disagrees; but the increasing willingness simply to take to the streets or to smash up meetings is another matter altogether. Most people are heartily fed up with one demonstration after another. Very soon the point will be reached when a cause will be harmed, and not helped, by the sight of crowds of men and women marching along a street.
Whether a demonstration be peaceful or violent, police time is wasted. It seems to be absurd that large numbers of policemen have to be engaged in London and other cities every weekend to safeguard marchers, at a time when the force is under strength and crime on the increase.
Rapid inflation always takes its toll in loss of respect for democratic institutions. The law, too, falls into disrepute. The customs that we cherish can no longer be taken for granted, as the increase in terrorism shows. If the emphasis has now to be altered a little, it should be in favour of respect for the law and against protesters. Nigel Saul Vice Chairman, Monday Club Universities Group, Hertford College, Oxford.
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