Appeal for the Heretical Two

As readers may recall, Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle, the 'Heretical Two' are currently in custody in California after appealing for political asylum in the USA.

Their legal team in the UK's main concern at present is to organise an appeal for funds in Britain. Full details of which are published today at the Home of the Green Arrow

I am sure that many will regard this as none of their business, or may feel uncomfortable in supporting people who have been convicted by a court of law. However, we should not forget that Sheppard and Whittle's crime was to express an opinion, in writing on their "heretical" internet site.

In Britain that can be a criminal offense, surely that can not be right.

For that fact alone, I believe these men deserve our support, for without free speech there is no freedom.

Even those who strongly oppose what the Heretical two wrote must surely be concerned by the blanket press silence about this case, it is now almost a month since Sheppard and Whittle fled the country, and since then the only press report I am aware of was in the Yorkshire Post on July 16.

Why? surely the fact that British citizens have applied for asylum to Britain's closest ally is a newsworthy story? Yet, this story is being totally suppressed in both the US and UK media, That form of media censorship is political and it is not something which should happen in a democracy.

The fact that it is happening is something which all of us, whatever our political affiliations, should find very frightening.

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‘The enemy of subversive thought is not suppression, but publication: truth has no need to fear the light of day; fallacies wither under it. The unpopular views of today are the commonplaces of tomorrow, and in any case the wise man wants to hear both sides of every question.’ Sir Stanley Unwin