Free speech used to be something we all took for granted – being able to say exactly what we thought, sharing politically incorrect jokes, watching outrageously funny and highly popular TV programmes like the Two Ronnies, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, ‘Allo ‘Allo.
Nor was it all British humour that captivated the nation – Billy T James was a Kiwi hero, as was Barry Crump.
All that is now gone – not because we have lost our sense of humour, but because someone somewhere said they were offended.
We now live in an increasingly dystopian world, where saying the wrong thing can get you ‘cancelled’ – fired, socially ostracised, even jailed.
Worse, under Jacinda Ardern’s regime, New Zealand is morphing into an Orwellian society, where things no longer mean what they say – ‘lies’ are being called the “truth”, and the real ‘truth’ is being re-classified as “misinformation” or “disinformation”.
