Sir – I would refer Mr Emlyn Jones (Letters, April 9) to the following from one of my previous letters “I sometimes feel uncomfortable with the targets satire chooses and methods it employs”.

I am not as sensitive as he is, although I have had some startlingly offensive things said to me by members of the religious community over the years.

My letters are not in defence or condemnation of particular instances, but in support of freedom.

As well as responsibility, it requires us to live with a wide range of expression.

If we censor people because something they say offends us, it will wither, there are no end of things people can be offended by, and we would soon be unable to debate things in public.

Life is messy, and more valuable for being so.

Paul Surman
Horspath