Aeons ago, in February 2010, the Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Hendon (who was me) blogged about human rights in Cuba. Someone calling themselves Sacha last night posted a comment telling me off about this and saying that Cuba is actually far more democratic than is the UK. Since Cuba is a one-party state with an appalling record on press freedom, I beg to differ. Sacha will be disappointed to discover that the February 2010 post on Cuba was actually not my first. This is a key difference between liberals and socialists: liberals believe that individual freedom trumps 'equality' as a value and therefore consider Cuban communist oppression to be as horrible as was Chilean or Argentinian fascist oppression; some socialists romantically believe that if Cuba or Venezuela are apparently striving for greater equality, then it doesn't matter if people's freedom of expression is brutally suppressed. I shall continue to say whatever the hell I like about Cuba's appalling human rights record. That includes, incidentally, the case of Alan Gross.
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