Free Republic

It's been more than two years since Britain banned entry to American talk-radio phenom Michael Savage, along with a short list of terrorists, neo-Nazis murderers and other vile scum. It was in May 2009 that the British government released a list of 16 persona non grata – banned so as to protect the country from provocateurs of violence. Today we should ask London how that deal is working out for them. It would seem apparent, however, that Britain has made less-than-perfect choices about whom to allow into the country and whom to keep out. Let me put it another way:...

Great Britain's decision to ban Michael Savage because of his "extreme views" marks a dark day in the history of free speech. The shame should be particularly severe in a nation that gave birth to John Stuart Mill, the 19th century political philosopher whose writings so strongly advanced the cause of open dialogue. Mill argued in his pivotal essay "On Liberty" that intolerance to hear opposing views amounts to an assertion that the politically correct view is infallible. Doubting that any human view could be without error, Mill fought hard to convince readers of the importance of encouraging the expression...