Freedom of Speech is dead?

Before I start I just want to make it clear that I am not in favour of the rights of people to abuse the hard won rights to freedom of speech.  Freedom of speech does not give people the right to preach sedition, hatred or pure bigotry.  However I think that everyone has a right to an opinion  which often is something that cannot be openly voiced due to the multitude of laws and regulations that prevent or curtail some loud mouthed or overly opinionated members of society to let forth all sorts of bile under the heading, “I am only speaking my mind” or “I was brought up to speak out” or “I learned to not hold back”.  All these assertions are misguided.
I do feel strongly thought that in this country there are too many social engineers (yes I know, my current hobby horse) that impose so many minority issues purely out of some ideas of supposed political correctness. Whilst I do not profess to follow any religion these days I do however accept that we are not a secular state and that the Church of England is in fact the “established” church and the Queen the “Defender of the faith”.  How therefore can public bodies such as the NHS or similar organisation place other religions sensitivities above those of the established church?  Why don’t these people listen to the likes of Peter Tatchell (I am no fan of his) but he has recently being speaking some sensible stuff about minority groups and how the beliefs and opinions of religious groups must be respected.
So many laws have been introduced in the last 13 years that it’s almost a criminal offence to have an opinion about anything.  B&B owners are not allowed to pick and chose who they can have staying in their house.  Committed Christians are not allowed to say they object to homosexuality on the grounds of their religion yet no one condemns or takes legal action against other religious objectors.  Politicians introduce abortion laws that fly in the face of the doctrine of the Catholic Church yet expect the Pope to change the doctrine.  Catholic adoption agencies are forced to close because of this same poorly thought through law.  Faith schools or all the major religions are forced to take pupils that will be poorly suited to the religious syllabus yet the Government take little or no notice of this.  I still can’t help but feel that the right of minority, special interest or gay rights groups would be better served by they in turn respecting the rights of religious groups and those individuals who seem to seek out confrontation and legal action should be more dignified in their approach to gaining acceptance of their beliefs and life style choices.
Enough of this ranting and back to relaxing! I leave you with My Quote of “Quotes of the week” (from the Mail on Sunday 4th April)
“It’s nice to see him making a speech that no one is paying for”
(David Cameron on Tony Blair’s appearance on the hustings last week.)