Letter: Long and short of it

Mr Ciaran Guilfoyle
Sunday 10 April 1994 18:02 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: Helen Cresswell argues (apropos enforcing restrictions on the watching of violent videos by children) that: 'When we shorten the flex of an electric kettle to keep it out of a small child's reach, we do not call that interfering with civil liberties' (Letters, 7 April).

I would like to point out that anything we choose to do as individuals (or as parents) cannot possibly constitute a threat to civil liberties. It is only when the authorities decide to step in and make that choice on our behalf (effectively depriving us of that choice) that civil liberties are interfered with.

As far as I am concerned, we can have our kettle flexes as long or as short as we like. But as soon as the Government decides to set up 'the Kettle Flex Length Committee', that is when we should recognise the threat to liberties and our ability to make autonomous decisions.

Yours,

CIARAN GUILFOYLE

Nottingham

7 April

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in