Freedom of speech is a foggy issue with no absolutes — and that’s sort of the point

It is a weird business when stories combine, even if they only do so in the mind of the commentator. On our screens, Tony Blair is about to fret about Jesus, making him look like a loony again. In Oxford, David Irving and Nick Griffin are cast, preposterously, as defenders of free speech. And in Sudan, that poor schoolteacher is banged up for allowing toddlers to call a teddy bear ‘Mohammed’. There is a link here, somewhere, although it’s foggy, and it bothers me. Does freedom of speech entail the right to call a teddy bear ‘Mohammed’? If not, do we have a problem?

Oxford first. Ridiculous situation. What little I really know of Nick Griffin — as a functioning human, as opposed to as a political entity — I know as a result of seeing him on Newsnight twice. Both times, he was interviewed by Gavin Esler. I’m told Paxman has had a crack at him, too, but I missed that one.