Iranians risk death marching against theocratic fascism, Iraqis vote in the face mortal threats, Afghan women brave acid attacks and mortar fire to attend school so they can learn to read.

To show solidarity with these people, to honour your British forebears who stood against tyranny – many of whom died doing so – it was required, only, that the members of IoC publish a cartoon.

And yet you could not do even this. You arrogate to yourselves the moral authority of politically free people, and when there is a cost, you refuse to pay it.

Your own personal comfort was more valuable than the freedom bequeathed to you by your forefathers.

If there is any strength left in the West, it is surely not to be found in this den of lickspittles.

Resign, and let better men than you defend your freedom.

Truly, we live in strange times.

When Zimbabwean reporters risked their lives to report what was happening in Zimbabwe over the elections, you wouldn’t say they should have shut up, you, as an organisation in favour of free speech would stand up and say Zimbabwe and the world as a whole need more like them.

But when even the vaguest of possible, as yet unmade threats is directed your way? Well watch the yellow stain in your hypocritical pants. You have destroyed any credibility the index might have had, you have taken a champion of free speech and turned it into precisely the sort of thing it is supposed to oppose.

Resign.

What an own-goal, though! This is almost as disastrous to the organisation’s credibility as its initial reaction when Theo van Gogh was murdered.

Here’s a hint that might be relevant to the present situation: if you oppose not only state censorship but also insidious kinds of self-censorship, try to avoid practising the latter yourself.