No one would listen to Stephen Fry if he was poor

• Published in: The Guardian (London)
• Main Author: Lees, Paris
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Guardian News & Media Limited 13.04.2016
• Subjects: Fry, Stephen
• ISSN: 0261-3077

Free speech is under attack and here comes Stephen Fry to defend it. Bemoaning the "infantilising" culture of safe spaces and trigger warnings that has developed at universities in recent years, Fry launches into an extraordinary attack on victims of sexual abuse, saying: "It's a great shame and we're all very sorry that your uncle touched you in that nasty place -- you get some of my sympathy -- but your self-pity gets none of my sympathy." It was a sustained attack. "Self-pity is the ugliest emotion in humanity," he said. "Get rid of it, because no one's going to like you if you feel sorry for yourself. The irony is, we'll feel sorry for you if you stop feeling sorry for yourself. Grow up." Utilising his right to free speech, Fry says it would be awful if people didn't read Titus Andronicus. Sorry, Stephen: I haven't. I went to a rundown comprehensive and read Romeo and Juliet for my GCSEs. I knew one person in my hometown who went to university. I'm from Nottingham, which as the BBC reported in 2013 is the poorest city in Britain, measured by disposable household income. The Beeb sent a reporter to speak to some of its poor residents and met Michael, a man in his twenties who lives on nothing but beans on toast because, as he says "It's not healthy but it's cheap". He spends most of his time hanging around an estate. I wonder how much his notional right to free speech is worth? Very little, I'm afraid, without an invite to Oxford Union.