Letter: Free speech or a platform for lies?

Sir: Your correspondents (Letters, 9 July) who argue that the historian David Irving should be allowed to publish his views on the grounds of free speech imply that the public at large has some faculty to distinguish right from wrong, and to act accordingly. Publication of Mr Irving's views, they argue, will thus merely reveal the extent of the falsehoods they contain.

Surely if such a general faculty existed, however, Hitler would never have come to power in the first place, and Mr Irving's opinions would be both irrelevant and repugnant.

Yours,

STEVE POMEROY

Capel,

Surrey

9 July