Arif Ahmed: is England’s new free speech tsar heretic or hero?

Speech should, must be, free in all but a few highly specific areas - no slander, no incitement to discrimmination (by race, age, sex etc), or of course violence - but everywhere else, free. Academia has to ruffel feathers, challenge beliefs, or it's not academia in any meaningful sense. As for so-called 'trigger warnings', whatever happened to "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words never hurt me".

Speech should indeed be free, but shouting "Fire!" in a crowded building is not a good idea... We need to grow up and accept that not everyone shares every opinion, and in a spirit of free and open debate be ready to discuss and disagree with opinions that we do not share.