Voices is the Dorset Echo's weekly youth page - written for young people by young people.

The right have fallen into the left’s trap of “you can’t say that!” in a bizarre fit of outrage.

Comedian Jo Brand said on Radio 4 show ‘Heresy’: “Why bother with a milkshake when you could get some battery acid?”

While Brand’s comment is in very poor taste and her stance is disagreeable - and I appreciate Nigel Farage’s concern that somebody could treat the joke as an instruction - I would also say that the widespread condemnation, even raising the hairs of the Prime Minister, is unwarranted and a threat to free speech.

For added context, the programme which Brand spoke on, Heresy, is a programme dedicated to its panellists saying deliberately outlandish and provocative comments.

There is a strong difference between words and actions – while it is okay to express disgust at morally questionable actions, I do not see any reason for the Prime Minister to get involved in words on a radio show.

Theresa May’s spokesman said: “It is for the BBC to explain why it was appropriate content to broadcast.”

Ofcom also said it had received 65 complaints from those offended by the comment.

That right there is what is damaging to free speech.

The Prime Minister has condemned a deliberately provocative statement on a comedy show dedicated to deliberately provocative statements.

What is worse is that to avoid a backlash, the BBC conceded and edited the programme.

While the right to free speech definitely includes a responsibility not to say dumb stuff, it is the responsibility of the listener to offer a logical rebuttal and to think ‘nobody in their right mind would turn those words into actions’.

Being offended is not a valid counterargument.

By Oliver Streather-Paul