A scant few days ago many in the world were united in saying “Je suis Charlie” to identify with the journalists at Charlie Hebdo. Many may regard Charlie Hebdo as frequently insulting, tasteless and at times unpleasant. However, the point was that freedom of speech to say (or write or draw) insulting, tasteless and unpleasant views is a vital tenant of democracy.
Unfortunately Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson seems not to have understood the principle. He has now complained to the Assembly standards commissioner about Sammy Wilson’s “Je Suis Sammy” tweet calling it tasteless.
Maybe the irony of complaining about tasteless references to a tasteless magazine is lost on Dickson: alternative explanations are that an election is coming, hypocrisy or simply Est-il stupide?
This author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.