I want my country back! I'm sick and tired of the threat to freedom of speech, Sir Gerald Howarth

Sadly, no such protection applies today to members of the public who have the temerity to express a view opposed by a small but very vocal, intolerant minority.

Take the treatment meted out to the author JK Rowling. The abuse to which she has been subjected for saying what the vast majority of people think is simply disgusting. Or take the case of GB News’ own Nigel Farage, de-banked by the pygmies running NatWest who found his views “did not align with the firm's ‘values’". The Batley Grammar School teacher whose life was threatened remains in hiding three years on following a lesson in which he used a picture of the Prophet Mohammed to illustrate issues around blasphemy. Or Katherine Birbalsingh CBE, hounded after she introduced a ban on Muslim prayers being said during school hours after a number of pupils began praying in the playground, against what she described as a backdrop of “violence, intimidation and appalling racial harassment of some of our teachers”.

For decades those who questioned the wisdom of allowing a vast wave of migration into Britain were vilified as ‘racist’. As no decent person liked being so accused, those in favour of the policy effectively closed down debate, the ‘racists’ were beyond the pale. It was a brilliant ploy until brave Gillian Duffy, ‘that bigoted woman’, challenged Gordon Brown at the 2010 general election. The Labour Party suddenly woke up to the fact that their loyal supporters felt betrayed so, overnight, it became okay to talk about measures to restrict inward migration.

That same policy of vilification is now directed at those who question the influence of Islam on our country; they are guilty (yes, that’s the word, guilty, thanks to the ludicrous concept of a ‘hate crime’) of ‘Islamophobia’.

At an election meeting at the excellent 6th Farnborough Form College I said that ours is a Christian country, an assertion met by a lot of tutting by some young Muslims in the audience. When I produced a coin from my pocket showing that our Sovereign was not only Queen but also FD, Fidei Defensor, defender of the faith, a title used since the time of Henry VIII, the students unaware of the significance, but nor were the lecturers.

Christian open air preachers are arrested by a demoralised and politicised Metropolitan Police ‘Service’ (formerly known as a ‘force’) some of whose officers fall to their knees in front of a Black Lives Matter demo, whilst supporters of jihad parade the streets of our capital with impunity. Jews protesting against the Hamas terrorists are arrested "for their own safety".

Meanwhile, the National Trust is so determined to silence its critics that the eminent former Supreme Court judge, Lord Jonathan Sumption, was deemed unsuitable to be recommended for membership of the Trust’s Council.

The recent damning report by Dame Sarah Khan, the Government’s advisor on social cohesion describes how politicians, academics, artists and journalists are self-censoring because of severe levels of harassment and abuse, which Khan calls ‘freedom restricting harassment’.

This overt threat to freedom of speech is a real threat to our democracy if only ‘approved’ views can be expressed. I want my country back and if new arrivals here feel offended, you are most welcome to emigrate to one of the many intolerant regimes around the world.