I have always been quite apolitical for reasons that are unknown to me.
I was brought up in shipbuilding in the west of Scotland. The shipbuilding was dying. Everyone moved to the new IBM factory, and then the IBM factory closed, and everyone died again.
I grew up in the Redlands; we were labour through and through. There was nothing else to think about, nothing else to look at.
But even as a result of that, my Dad was always bitter about how poor his parents were in the 1970s with the labour government, so he could never trust labour again.
I meandered through life and never really had any allegiance to one political party which to friends, at times, seemed to cause much distress and upset but I've always retained that position where I am never overtly political.
I never really write about politics here because all I do is consume politics.
I try to make my mind up about what's happening in different places from the information I receive from other streams, but I'm not a politician, and I don't sing or shout or soapbox for political causes.
That is not because I disregard politics and not because I don't want to be part of society.
I always, always vote.
There is a reason, though, that you vote in private, and it's so that you don't have to tell anyone else why you vote, so no one really knows what I voted for in Brexit. The only time I mentioned voting was about the Scottish election for independence.
It is for those reasons that I will not be your referee.
If you have a cause that is dear to you, that you think is absolutely solid and secure, and you choose to shout about it and try to persuade people of your beliefs, I am all cool with that.
"I don't agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
The thing about free speech is that it's free, and you get to speak it.
The problem at the present time is that we cannot seem to find a dividing line between free speech and hate speech.
It's a tough one to set up that.
It's not my job to decide where that line exists, although it's my responsibility to try to adhere to it in a way that I think is morally correct, neither is it my job to referee it.
It is not fair for someone to come to me and say, "Because of this, you have to do that", when no laws have been broken, and their society has such a high regard for free speech (or it certainly used to).
We must be allowed to talk about things that we are passionate about.
When we see things that we think are wrong, we should be able to discuss them openly and not feel that we are threatened physically, emotionally, psychologically or financially.
It's never, ever, ever right to feel that you're being bullied, certainly not in the society that we say is dear to us.
And so, for all of those reasons above, if I've explained anything, I'm not the referee.
Do not ask me to cast judgment on someone else that you have already cast judgment on yourself.
Don't expect that I will have to agree with you, but please never tell me that I have to make that choice.
Blog Post Number - 3638
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