John Bright told his Birmingham constituents that if Britain was indeed a great nation, it was because her public was contented and not because her empire was wide.

John Bright asked the people of Birmingham to spread the word that a great nation, like any good citizen and neighbour, does not meddle officiously in the affairs of others.

Those in Power may imagine that a docile and compliant public makes Government run more smoothly, but a society of that kind just won’t move forward.

Abusive language, straw-man arguments and downright ‘fake news’ should have no place in civilised debate, but censoring them is far worse.

Even where freedom of speech and conscience are not curtailed by law, there is another kind of censorship that is just as destructive to progress.

John Stuart Mill set out three kinds of liberty essential to a truly free society: freedom of conscience, of tastes, and of association.