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Press and general freedom - we are so lucky

I wonder do people realise how lucky we are with our freedom? I mean, providing it's legal and honest, we can almost say what we like about anyone and anything - within the boundaries of decency of course.

We can pillory our Deputy Prime Minister - in fact for some people it's their only hobby. The nationalists can remark that they don't want HM the Queen. We have positively distasteful people like Nick Griffin and his nasty nutters allowed the freedom to seek election and speak freely. We even allow useless and moronic reality television stars and Tamara Ecclestone a platform to become "slebrih-ees", where they contribute absolutely nothing to the fabric or wellbeing of society.

I read that the wonderful Talibanimals in remote Afghan regions now inflict 70 lashes for beards not long enough, wearing a collar 15 lashes, smoking 30 lashes or the best of all, failure to keep trousers above the ankles, 20 lashes.

I can't quite get my head around their barbaric mindset where, in essence, they really are in need of urgent medical treatment. They are nothing if out of their tiny, narrow little minds. In fact, wild animals wouldn't behave the way they do!

Although not likely to inflict the cane, the North Koreans are almost as bad for different reasons. In comparison with the Talibanimals, they at least maintain a sense of human dignity and propriety in the way they oppress their masses. And there is an element of envy on the part of most of us in the West that the North Korean population have never heard of Leona Lewis, One Direction or Rhianna, or that Michael Jackson is dead.

And the Chinese. They are in the 22nd Century when it comes to technology, but only beginning to creep into the 19th Century on other matters. Their censorship, for example, of the internet, defies belief, and it's simply pure greed on the part of Google and others that these cash behemoths go along with that censorship.

So when the Leveson inquiry, constantly on our screens, takes the media to task for hacking mobile phones, we should be relieved.

Having your mobile phone hacked seems to be the norm for the Chinese and North Korean, and woe betide you if you have any pictures on your mobile in Talibanimal land. That's a temporary detention and a thorough beating.

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