THE recent furore involving the immensely-popular entertainer Jim Bowen (LET, October 7) should surprise nobody.

The indisputable facts of the matter are that the lunacy of political correctness so beloved by the "Blair Broadcasting Corporation" and the majority of politicians has been and is being foisted on to all of those of us who are prepared to accept it.

Free speech no longer exists in this country. The establishing and implementation of our "race laws' implemented and enforced by the Commission for Racial Equality has seen to that.

The wise and sensible Lord Justice Sedley once observed, "free speech includes the contentions, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative, provided it does not intend to provoke violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having - our world has seen too many examples of state control of unofficial ideas ."

Substitute the word 'country' for 'world' and we have the idiocy that is now the norm.

A copy of Lord Sedley's statement should be forced reading for all of the BBC and also the majority of politicians.

J K FIELDING, Cecilia Street, Great Harwood.