[Sybarite]

I've sent the following to Waterstones MD Gerry Johnson at gerry.johnson@waterstones.com.

Originally Posted by Sybarite

Dear Mr Johnson,

I am writing to express my concern at the decision to cancel the launch of Patrick Jones's new collection of poems at the Cardiff branch of Waterstones earlier this week.

While I fully appreciate that Waterstones has a responsibility to its staff and customers to maintain their safety, in this instance it appears that threats have been allowed to effectively censor the views of a writer.

If, as author Patrick Jones asserts on his own website, the event was cancelled "due to 'threats of disruption and violence' from members of christian voice and others" (his quotation marks), then the first recourse of Waterstones should have been to call the police.

Stephen Green and his ilk have a right to their opinions and the right to voice those opinions – no matter how repulsive. They do not have the right to stop an artist and a company going about their perfectly lawful business or to stop others from accessing entirely legal materials on the grounds that they personally do not like them. That is the antithesis of free speech.

Unfortunately, the decision by Waterstones to abandon the event seems to be a case of caving in to religious fundamentalism and intolerance. And it will provide encouragement, not only to Mr Green and his supporters, but to others who wish to censor.

I would hope that Waterstones will decide to reschedule the event, allowing the poetry-loving public of Cardiff the opportunity to decide for themselves whether or not they wish to hear Mr Jones read from his work.

Yours sincerely ...

I've just found out that Jones is gay – not that that will have influenced the homophobic bigot that is Green.