Dave Stewart

The February 3, 2023, Beacon published a letter I wrote about a letter on the topic of freedom of speech mentioning how you simply couldn’t get away from the subject due to the constant hammering of the narrative by the conservative right and their constant whining about how ‘The Left’ were trying to suppress freedom of speech.

I wrote “We hear this almost daily from the likes of David Seymour and his friends on the right. Turn of the TV there they will be complaining about free speech being under attack.

“Open the newspaper there they are again complaining about being ‘silenced’. It seems everywhere you look the right are complaining they’re not being heard.”

Well didn’t they silence themselves quickly?

Where were those voices this week as an artist who spoke up for a free Palestine was cancelled by the billionaires who own the stadiums of America?

The conservative right used to be often heard defending free speech 24/7 when it suited them.

The absolute clustershow that Ed Sheeran got himself in over dropping Macklemore from his line-up could not have been more predictable.

His entire show collapsed as all supporting artists, including his entire backing band, withdrew in support of artistic freedom.

Did he really think he could cancel an artist over free speech and then the rest of the artists would just carry on and pretend nothing happened?

Silencing artists is a common theme for conservatives. It’s almost as popular as their support for free speech for people who say what they want to hear.

The Beatles were faced with a similar predicament when touring America for the first time and were confronted with the prospect of racially segregated crowds. They simply refused to play to segregated audiences.

In 1960, the Dave Brubeck Quartet had a 25-date tour lined up across the South.

Twenty-two colleges and universities refused to host the integrated quartet or demanded that Brubeck replace black bassist Eugene “Gene” Wright with a white musician.

Brubeck refused. The quartet lost 22 bookings rather than exclude Wright.

We are all not too old to remember when apartheid South Africa invited our All Blacks to tour the republic but only if we sent all white teams.

Freedom isn’t free. Some times you have to pay a cover charge.

I thought if anyone had the readies to pay that, Sheeran was a certainty.

I guess sometimes money can’t buy the things that really matter.

Free Palestine.