The staggering hypocrisy of modern political discourse has been laid bare by a series of tumultuous events over the Christmas period, blighting my ability to gleefully tear the wrapping paper off of yet another Lynx Africa wash-set. The world appears to have turned on its head overnight. If the early encounters are anything to go by, 2017 is giving 2016 a run for its money.

Supposed ‘left liberals’ on the internet led calls on publishing house, Simon and Schuster, to cancel a book deal handed to controversial journalist and self-confessed provocateur Milo Yiannopolous. This is doublethink – liberals traditionally tolerated diversity and plurality in society. How can you stand for freedom of expression, yet censor a book that hasn’t even been written yet? The general rule nowadays seems to be that so-called liberals will tolerate free speech, only insofar as it overlaps directly with their own ideology. If you are unwilling to even hear the opinion of someone who disagrees with you, were you ever that sure in your own opinions to begin with?

Mr Yiannopolous is no angel. He was banned from Twitter for likening African-American comedienne Leslie Jones to a ‘hot black guy’. Though he maintains this was a joke, the Breitbart vice-editor was immediately branded a white supremacist in a trial-by-internet of unprecedented proportions.

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