Like most Londoners, I do not generally talk to strangers – especially on public transport. However, if I want to speak to them I can go to Speakers ‘ Corner in Hyde Park. It is an area where anyone can speak on any subject they want whilst others listen, debate or just heckle. I remember going there as a student to hear everyone from Christian evangelists to Trotskyite proselytisers. The speakers I liked the most though were the ones who were happy to discuss their own ideas. Good ones challenged me to think anew about subjects such as Britain’s history in Africa. The best ones got a debate going with the crowd around them. OK, some of them involved conspiracy theories about aliens!
So with this blog we want to talk to strangers. I mean that in the nicest way (!!!) to refer to people we at the British Embassy do not usually have contact with. Like good speakers at Speakers’ corner we will want to challenge you with our ideas on foreign policy. And like a good session at Speakers’ Corner we will want you to talk back to us. Tell us what you think of our posts or if there are other issues you want us to cover. How far should you go? English case law has a great definition that can guide us in our virtual Speakers’ Corner. Freedom of speech could not be limited to the inoffensive but extended also to “the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome, and the provocative, as long as such speech did not tend to provoke violence”. Well that is a good list to start with!