Free country?

Veronica Denyer (Letters, 7 February) mocks Nancy Cusker for fearing for freedom of speech in this “relatively free country”.

We have already seen a couple who ran B&B in their home taken to court for not accommodating a gay couple, while in Scotland “hate” crimes are now being introduced to the legal system, and an SNP minister called for the dismissal of an academic who expressed views not in line with the SNP “independence” agenda. Some freedom of speech! 

She later compares this new “tolerance” with the abolition of the death penalty, which she describes as “a good thing, too”. So, presumably she also approves of the results of such a change in the law, since murders have risen some tenfold since the ­abolition of capital punishment. I wonder whether the families of murder victims also think the absence of the death penalty is a “good thing”.

Douglas Hamilton

Lamlash Isle of Arran

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