Gavin Williamson and I were born in the 70s.

We grew up with ‘video nasties’ banned, ‘Relax’ banned from Radio 1, Sinn Fein politicians’ voices banned from being aired on UK television, and Section 28 banning LGBT Britons from being presented in a positive light in schools.

I watched Evil Dead and A Clockwork Orange on tapes of tapes of tapes that the guy I knew at the video store kept in the back room

I didn’t see The Exorcist until I was 28 years old. Because it was banned until then.

We are not a country with a broad and stirring heritage of free speech, and the Conservatives are not the party of free speech. Small, petty, easily offended; Mary Whitehouse and moral panics; won’t somebody think of the children? That. Absolutely

When the first Gulf War happened, the BBC banned 67 songs from the airwaves for fear of causing indecency or offence. Please read this list and tell me that the United Kingdom has a swaggersome history of protecting your right to offend

Let’s not forget that The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 criminalised music with ‘repetitive beats.’

Also? SALMAN RUSHDIE IS BRITISH

And how about Drill? The group 1011 are banned by court order from mentioning postcodes in their music as of June 2018. Skengdo and AM were prosecuted for performing in 2019

One more thing: if you think the UK government stands stoutly athwart people’s desire not to be offended, you really should examine our pornography laws. Remember when the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014 banned female ejaculation? And BDSM?

Several of you have reminded me of this: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the United Kingdom lest our youth turn to lives of martial arts crime

And there’s the four episodes of Star Trek banned from being screened in the UK until, ahem, 1994

More on the largely-unquestioned restrictions on Drill performers from @EdClowes

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/arts/music/digga-d-drill-music.html

Thank you for the reminder that a 1987 episode of Degrassi Junior High was banned in Britain because it showed lesbians in a positive light

Shout out to everyone mentioning the episode of Star Trek: TNG that was banned or aired with cuts until 2006 because it mentioned a united Ireland

Why aren’t I mentioning bans and censorship from the 70s and before? Because all this happened when Gavlar and I were young, free, and dancing to the repetitive beats of the forbidden tunes.

Here, for anyone born in the 90s, is how it looked on the news when Gerry Adams was interviewed

Adding: the tabloid and government moral panic over ‘nunchucks’ which led to censorship like this https://twitter.com/grahamneedham/status/1362115634465808388

The Pogues ‘Songs of Sorrow/Birmingham 6’, which was hastily cut when first aired in 1988 and then banned from being broadcast altogether

I mean, lads. In 1991 the government actually banned dogs. Farewell, Pit bull terrier, Japanese tosa, Dogo argentino & Fila brasileiro

Or when Massive Attack’s name was deemed unpatriotic https://twitter.com/raywhelan1/status/1362134169086689281

Several of you have pointed out that 'Reservoir Dogs' was banned, and I foolishly imagined you had dreamt it. Nope. https://www.filmstories.co.uk/features/reservoir-dogs-and-how-it-was-banned-in-the-uk-on-video/

Sample of today's reader responses in the Telegraph piece that says the 'war on woke' will not be won until every person in the land personally likes Tories

The proposed 'solutions' are the same in the 2020s as they were in the 1980s: censor, purge, fire, ban, blacklist