Dear Sir,
A peculiar pattern appears prevalent in political discourse, valuing firm adherence to a standpoint. This brings to light the fundamental question: should politicians sway the public through convincing arguments, or merely identify the popular opinion and mimic it, essentially following their voters?
Indeed, the correct answer could oscillate between the two, depending on various contexts. Still, any change of stance is often met with allegations of indecisiveness, insincerity or inconsistency.
It’s therefore quite easy to mock Sinn Féin for their u-turn regarding proposed anti-hate speech legislation. While this change might seem hypocritical and opportunistic—which it probably is—they can’t even justify it by claiming to modify their stance when the facts do. Regardless, their present standpoint that the legislation should be abandoned is undeniably right. Existing legislation already handles the issue of hate speech. Attempting to categorize hatred based on the intent is merely a matter for the so-called “thought police”. Certainly, there are more pressing tasks for our elected members to tackle than this misdirected attempt at virtue-contending.
If the Government is unable to prioritize more essential issues at present, it might very well be time to hold an election due to their drawback in generating ideas.
Yours faithfully,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.