A brave, principled and decent man - but I don't like his politics

Over Christmas, I was dissapointed this evening to hear that Peter Tatchell has stood down as the Green candidate for Oxford East, where most political commentators gave him half a chance of winning.

His withdrawal is a consequence of brain injuries he received back in 2001, when he was the only person in western Europe to stand up to Robert Mugabe’s vile regime in Zimbabwe.

He tried to arrest Mugabe on a visit to Brussels and got his head kicked in (literally) by Mugabe’s goons. Two years ago he was beaten up again by neo-Nazis while campaigning in Moscow.
He had hoped the injuries might abate with time and allow him to campaign in Oxford, but there was a slight relapse in the summer and he simply isn’t up to it.

I do not share many of Tatchell’s politics but for me he is one of the most brave, principled and decent men in the country.

He has been absolutely steadfast and relentless in standing up for freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and in fighting persecution wherever it occurs.

This has lost him many, many friends on the left, when he has been campaigning against Muslim preachers or misogynist and homophobic rap artists, whom he believes we should not lionise. His commitment to the principle of freedom of speech is absolute and unyielding.

Tatchell deserves the utmost respect for the way he conducted himself in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election.

Tatchell was the Labour candidate in this safe Labour seat but was defeated by a scurrilous and vicious homophobic hate campaign which was, at the least, sanctioned by the victorious Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes.

Oh, the irony. And yet, even then, Tatchell did not raise the question of Hughes’ own sexuality, not once over the intervening 25 years. Hughes recently apologised to Tatchell, shortly after the Lib Dem MP had admitted, at last, to his own bisexuality; Tatchell accepted the apology graciously and said nothing more about the matter.

It almost goes without saying that the strongest condemnation of the convictions of seven Muslim protestors for shouting nasty things at returning British soldiers would have been by Tatchell himself.

It matters not to Tatchell that these men would, if they found themselves in government, immediately chop his head off, or flay him to death. Freedom of speech is unconditional.