Today “freedom of speech” is weaponised as a cloak for division by right wing extremists crusading for a roll back of the civil and humans rights we have fought for and won over a hundred years.

Martin Niemöller, who stood against the Nazis, warned of the cost of silence: “First they came for the socialists…” You know the rest. Actually, they began with transgender, then LGB, then the disabled.

As you read this, trans women and men are constantly vilified by ‘gender critical’ ideologues and their media allies as mortal dangers to women’s safety, dignity, and privacy. Nothing could be further from the truth. We know these are lies, and flat facts bear this out.

A real Culture War is being waged, based on hate, fear, discrimination and a host of evils, home grown and imported from, and sustained by, Trump’s America. Canada, Australia and Norway have rejected that.

Britain is better than this, for its people are overwhelmingly tolerant and accepting. We know this, because we have seen their tolerance and compassion in the six months since the flawed Supreme Court ruling as we campaign for our human rights across the country. So many people tell us what it happening is simply wrong.

We are proud of our country. Proud of our diversity. Proud of our national flag. But not when it’s hijacked by the far-right as a symbol of racism, bigotry and exclusion.

With Liberal Democrat voices, votes and support we are not powerless. Because when we rise up and stand together we all become the future of a good, tolerant Britain.

Write to your MP, call your MP, meet with your MP and tell them to do everything they can to block laws and regulations that are designed to divide and suppress the equal rights of all Britain’s citizens. Starting with the Labour Government’s moves to discriminate against transgender, non-binary and intersex people.