Sixteen people banned from entering the UK were “named and shamed” by the Home Office today.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she decided to make public the names of 16 people banned since October so others could better understand what sort of behaviour Britain was not prepared to tolerate. The list includes hate preachers, anti-gay protesters and a far- right US talk show host. “I think it’s important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it’s a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won’t be welcome in this country,” Ms Smith told GMTV.
“We are publishing the names of 16 of those that we have excluded since October. We are telling people who they are and why it is we don’t want them in this country.” She said the number of people excluded from Britain had risen from an average of two a month to five a month since October. The list of the 16 “least wanted” includes radio talk show host Michael Savage, real name Michael Weiner.
“This is someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country,” Ms Smith told BBC Breakfast.
“If people have so clearly overstepped the mark in terms of the way not just that they are talking but the sort of attitudes that they are expressing to the extent that we think that this is likely to cause or have the potential to cause violence or inter-community tension in this country, then actually I think the right thing is not to let them into the country in the first place. Not to open the stable door then try to close it later,” Ms Smith said.
Disturbing trend or great idea? Is free speech for everyone or just those you agree with? What about the radical clerics already in the UK, will they be deported?
I can not stand Savage’s show but this is nuts. We might as well start burning books while we’re at it.
Can we ban him in the US too?
We cant?, Darn!
Conspicuously absent from the list: Adam Curry. He must be on the double secret list. Has Adam tried to go back to Britain yet?
Maybe this should be a reality check for those that listen to this “Dr Savage”. Britain has had the courage and decency to list him for what he is.
What Savage promotes, under the guise of entertainment, is outright violence against all minorities, armed insurrection against the US government, mass extermination of religious groups, selective ‘culling’ of the mentally and physically challenged, biological and chemical warfare against latinos, mass sterilization of those deemed unworthy, etc.
He is known by many as “The Jewish Nazi”, and when you know what he advocates, you can understand why.
Good for Britain for saying “we don’t want scum like Michael Savage in our country advocating his hate filled views.”
He will be “V”. For Vendetta!
What is next? Are they going to ban the all Fox News employees? Hail Britannia … you myopic bastards!
Nothing new here, remember the only place on earth you have free speech is here in the United States. Well at least until people like ArianeB (#4) and Reality Check (#6) “Change” things.
Gee Pot I’d like you to meet Kettle… :/
BLOGS will be next.
What ever happened to the ‘thought police’?
The problem with Dr. Savage is he is usually right but he is ‘in your face’ in a New York/San Francisco kind of way.
Sometimes I have to turn him off but it is always interesting.
I think this guys opinions are nuts, hateful, weak, lacking a modicum of reason, and I fully support his right to say it.
The europeans have a very different idea of free speech. I think we are right and they are wrong.
Zech
Have you or have you ever been a listener of the Savage Nation? The new McCarthyism begins.
Had a lot of trouble listening to him in the beginning, but now I always have to turn his show on. To this day I do not watch to MS-NBC because they dropped his television show.
Is it just me or does he look like a liberal?
As a gay liberal Democrat, this is disturbing. You should have free speech…whether it’s to say Christianity (and all religions) are just childish superstitions for weak minded people, or for the religious to say that Jews and blacks are magically evil (along with bacon and dancing).
Weiner (Savage) is a jack ass who caters to the worst elements of human nature to pump up ratings in his little show. But so what. The vast majority of the public would view his opinions as nuts.
The only real limit to free speech is when you call for killing/harming of others. You can say Jews, black or gypsies are magically wrong, but if you ask your listeners to kill them or “stop them by any means” then you’re pushing past free speech to the yelling fire in a crowded movie theater area. I don’t know if Weiner (Savage) has specifically done that, since I can’t listen to 4 hours of AM talk radio a day, I have a job.
Trust me… I’m NO fan of Michael Weiner (aka Savage) but this ain’t right. Just being a pig-headed loon spewing hate from every orifice is not reason to ban the guy.
Yes, this is one liberals who is recoiling at this.
http://dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/themes/dvorak/images/comments.gif
[Please drop the WWW from URLs as WordPress doesn’t display it properly… plus it’s unnecessary. – ed.]
Alfred1 –
Just a couple of remarks:
a) By your own admission you have never listened to the guy, so you are utterly ignorant as to why the UK banned him from entering their country. Maybe you should educate yourself a little bit before taking a position?
b) Thank you for the compliment about my views… given your track record, I feel very good about myself for being singled out as your opposition.
Interesting that some people here want to ban the free speech of Michael Savage, but would call for the immediate silencing if the source were not Judeo-Christian.
I think the UK, unfortunately, may be correct in this instance. I do believe in freedom of speech but they do have some very violent minorities there that we don’t have in the US. And, these are the very same minorities that Savage rails about.
If we could have prevented the Rwandan genocide by curtailing the hate messages of the radio commentators, should we have censored them?
P.S. I am not against boycotting Rockstar “energy” drinks as he is the company founder.
(A little correction)
“Interesting that some people here want to ban the free speech of Michael Savage, but would call for the immediate silencing if the source were not Judeo-Christian.”
Of course that should read “Interesting that some people here DON’T want to ban…”
To answer McCullough, the bat s*&t mad loony fundamentalist clerics, are British, bat s*&t mad loony fundamentalist clerics. British Subjects, Residents of Her Territory and Domains, Citizens of the European Union and of it’s Member States. So, they can say and think what they want.
This trend towards trying to control the thought processes and freedom of speech of people is disturbing. No matter how extremist your opinions, you should have the right to express them. It would be pretty boring without those people who sometimes jolt our thinking. We don’t need governments telling us what we can think.
Well, I’d never heard of Savage before this, and now I have. Well done, Jacqui, for giving him free publicity.
Gay.
Is this the same as being granted ‘persona non-grata’?
Update: I’d be more concerned about what kind of bureaucratic paper-pusher gets to decide who is on the ban list.
Doesn’t sound scientific or even professional. Did this lady hear of him and decide she doesn’t like him and add him to the list or is there an actual process?
I’m Michael Savage is a boilerplate windbag of tired ideas trying to earn a lunch, but hardly someone dangerous or even in fact well known.
What that Savage character is real? You guys are sh!tt!ng me. I thought it was radio satire just a caricatured version of Rush Limbaugh, so we can laugh at the well intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot.
For me, yesterday that show was great now it’s been ruined. Thanks dvorak/blog
Hey, is any one surprised that Alfred1 is an expert on Savage hmmm wonder whose been telling him what to think?
Still he should be free to speak/(blow his hate chunks then wipe his face with the flag) here in the US. If other nations don’t want him thats there choice I sure wouldn’t not let him in my house.
Savage is loving this shit. He already blasted the stupid english bastards earlier today saying how he really wanted to visit the land of dental wonders and fine food. Funny as hell. This is going to be good.
@#20 “If we could have prevented the Rwandan genocide by curtailing the hate messages of the radio commentators, should we have censored them?”
This is exactly answered by the first amendment. There is no case when curtailing expression of any opinion has any benefit except in the case of direct instructions for violence. So, if some general in Africa was instructing people to kill their neighbours – yes he should have been censored. Yet, if some radio host hated his neighbours and talked trash about them – it is his right (and our right to think and interpret what he was saying).
Allowing to censor someones expression will always backfire in the form of Governmental abuse, as the USA founders understood very well. Shame on intolerant Britons.
As the song says “there’s no England anymore”
Anyone with a strong opinion and spine is a threat to that Nanny state.
Just WHO makes the “decision” to ban someone from expressing their views in England anyway? “The Government”?! Or is it a small group of people or even just one person who decides?
I’d be looking real close at those in power who are making these decisions. They seem to have forgot their RESPONSIBILITY if they are claiming public safety or any other reason. And that responsibility starts with separating those who do not follow their law from those who do!
It seems to me this lack of “due process” and the total lack of any representation in the decision making process was one of the main reasons we had a little revolution here in America a few years ago. Thanks George, Ben, Tom, John and all the rest. Should we do it again?
Oh I forgot to mention…looking at Jacqui Smith reminds me of the saying Adam Curry is fond of:
“Politics is show business for ugly people.”
Go to hell Jacqui Smith you freedom-hating bureaucrat. Everyone else, have a nice day! 🙂
Britian has no Bill of Rights. The gov’t (I think) even has the ability to kill certain news stories. Freedom of the press and speech is largely an American ideal… and is one reason we are a separate country.
In my opinion, Michael Weiner adds very little to the marketplace of ideas, but he has the right to say them.
Now to the conservatives wringing their hands at this… were you so forgiving when Bush operatives were saying that we should criticize the President or the Iraq War a few years back? You are either for free speech or not.