Stand up for free speech

A former town councillor has launched a campaign for a Speakers’ Corner in Newark.

Mr Laurence Goff, of Farndon Road, Newark, wants people to be able to stand on soap boxes and give their opinions in the Market Place.

Mr Goff, chairman of the Newark and District Labour Party, said: “I feel very strongly about people having the right to speak. It is good democracy.”

Mr Goff has raised the possibility with Newark and Sherwood District Council and hopes it will be discussed at the next meeting on March 10.

Meantime, Mr Goff is organising public discussion meetings at the Rutland Arms, Barnbygate, Newark on the first Thursday of every month.

Mr Goff said the idea for a Speakers’ Corner in Newark came after he heard Nottingham’s Old Market Square would get its own version.

The Speakers’ Corner Trust hopes to set up a national network of the sites, and the idea was championed by Mr Jack Straw when he was Home Secretary.

The district councillor with responsibility for the Market Place, Mr David Payne, said: “If there is a demand, we will have to consult businesses and shops around the Market Place.

“Unlike Nottingham’s Old Market Square, Newark Market Place is close to shops and businesses.”

The original Speakers’ Corner, near Marble Arch, London, was given legal status as a platform for free speech in the late 19th Century.

The tradition is thought to date from when condemned prisoners had the right to address crowds before being hanged at Tyburn.

Speakers’ Corner was used by the suffragettes to launch their movement, and Karl Marx and Lenin spoke there.

The most noted speaker, however, was the Methodist minister Donald Soper, later Baron Soper.

A pacifist, opponent of blood sports and champion of the homeless and alcoholics, he drew large crowds. He first spoke in 1942, and continued until three weeks before his death, aged 95, in 1998.