Holocaust denial is repellent, ignorant and dumb, but it shouldn’t be illegal. In certain European countries, it is. Now, however we have this rather interesting story via the EU Observer:

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn has warned France on its planned adoption of a law making it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide, saying it may mean that people could “end up in prison in an EU member state” for expressing their views…the draft French law has also started to raise tempers in the European Parliament, with one of the parliament’s senior experts on Turkey warning that the freedom of speech in the EU is under threat. Joost Lagendijk, Dutch Green MEP and chair of the parliament’s delegation to the joint EU-Turkey parliamentary committee, told EUobserver that EU efforts to promote free speech in Turkey are being made “less credible” by the French legislation. “The EU is rapidly developing a perception problem in Turkey,” Mr Lagendijk said. “If we ask Turkey to ensure the freedom of expression we cannot have a situation where at the same time, people could end up jailed for their views in Europe. Freedom of speech is at stake here.” The Dutch MEP was referring to the EU’s efforts to get Ankara to change the notorious article 301 in its penal code, which penalises “insulting Turkishness.

Lagendijk’s comments have, apparently, “infuriated” French MEPs, with one claiming (remarkably) that, “Europe is a continent where freedom of speech is guaranteed in an extraordinary manner,” a dodgy assertion to say the least, but at least he’s honest enough to include the inevitable “but”. “Free speech, he says, ends when the memories of a people are abused and their feelings are suffering from lies.”

There’s always that “but”.