Kmflett's Blog

Reform often claims to be the defender of free speech and against ‘cancel culture.

It does not however apply at its own ‘conference’ where protesters were violently ejected by a Reform mob, as they heckled on climate change,

Some commentators compared the scenes to British Union of Fascists rallies in the 1930s where hecklers were routinely roughed up and ejected.

The convention is that there is a democratic right to heckle and that the speaker instead of droning on about it being ‘boring’ as Farage does recognises that and provides a response that shuts the heckler up.

One master of how to deal with the political heckler was Harold Wilson. Addressing a crowd in Birmingham in 1966 Wilson was talking about his public expenditure plans when a heckler cried, “What about Vietnam?” – the burning issue of the day. “The government has no plans to increase public expenditure in Vietnam,” rejoined Wilson. Heckler: “Rubbish!” Wilson: “I’ll come to your special interest in a minute, sir.”