Nature abhors a vacuum

And that presumably is why the UK's now got legislation making it a crime to incite hate in respect of homosexuals (gays, lesbians and bisexuals).

This is a despicable and dangerous piece of legislation that apart from anything else makes martyrs of fundamentalists of various religious persuasions who can now mount a claim for persecution.

Essentially the government has created a thought crime by legislating to restrict the freedom of god-botherers at large to say what they think.

Are we any better off when the poofs are out of the closet and the poof-bait er are taking up the space they've vacated? Are this country's gays and lesbians any safer for not knowing who their opponents are and what they're actually thinking.

This is the problem with all this political correctness-driven constraint and restraint. In the short term it turns down the volume, in the longer term it means our enemies are still plotting only in the dark where we can't see them, rather than out in the open where we can keep an eye on them.

Then there's the issue of that nasty little question "what next?". Today you can't think this, or that. What will it be you can't do, tomorrow. I rather like my freedom to vent my contempt for Little John, thank you very much.