Dear PM and Home Sec
I'm probably a bit too old and feeble to be able to cope with a spell in prison, so could you please guide me on certain pressing matters?
I know you are both very strong advocates of human rights and free speech because these are amongst the tenets of the political party you lead. You must be aware that there are people who speak about, and campaign for, issues that you disagree with. But more than that, it's surely part of your belief-system that you hold with the idea that though you disagree with certain beliefs, you most certainly don't disagree with the right of people to hold those beliefs.
However, recent acts being taken by your government - and now by the police - are leading me to be concerned that perhaps you don't hold to these tenets anymore. It feels as if you have departed from that idea.
With this in mind, I'm in urgent need for your guidance. Could you please say in easily understood ways, what it is I am allowed and not allowed to say about Palestine, the Palestinians and people who support them? Could you also make clear that if ever I depart from what it is I am allowed to say, will it be the duty of good citizens to report me to the authorities? Presumably, if this is the case, you would be in favour of this becoming some kind of civil guard, ensuring that, in the event of my breaching the code on permissable behaviour, that I should face whatever it is the authorities might want to throw at me. However, as I say, I am trying to avoid a prison sentence, so I will do all I can, not to say or do anything that infringes the law that you have put in place.
Can I say, in passing, that this must surely represent some kind of progress? Only a few years ago there was a great danger that your Party would have favoured a whole raft of views about Palestine including the one that implied that Palestinians are human beings. In your capable hands, you and the Labour Party have - thank goodness - put all that behind you.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Regards
Michael Rosen
