David Webb made a number of speeches on censorship/NCROPA/pornography over the years, and as might be expected they were similar, sometimes strikingly so, but new material was worked into them and they were adapted to suit the audience he was addressing.
The transcripts are listed below chronologically. As with everything else on this site, I cannot vouch for their accuracy, but I have no reason to take issue with the tenor of what is said. They are all in Portable Document Format.
As with the rest of this site, I have not included absolutely everything. On March 17, 1990 he made a speech at the University of York Freedom Society Seminar Derwent College. This has not been included as his speech of May 8, 1990 at Islington is essentially the same. The speech of October 23, 1990 is likewise more or less the same until page 7 when it has been augmented. The last, short, paragraph has been dropped and replaced with two longer ones. If his speeches have a generic title it is Censorship – The Real Obscenity, as per his address to the South Place Ethical Society of January 10, 1982.
Cambridge Union Debate, October 18, 1976
NCCL AGM, April 19, 1980
There is no mention of above in the relevant NCCL report, but in a letter to Patricia Hewitt of April 23, 1980 (not included here), David Webb alludes to speaking (apparently) at the meeting, so presumably if he didn’t make this precise speech, he said something along the same lines.
South Place Ethical Society, January 10, 1982
The above includes a flyer; the speech appears to have been repeated on February 12, 1982
CENSORSHIP & OBSCENITY, the Mary Ward Center, March 21, 1982
‘Pornography’ Or Censorship?, Marlborough College, February 2, 1984
Speech prepared for Lambeth Council meeting, January 5, 1989
The above was not delivered – see text.
Speech to a seminar on censorship, February 26, 1989
Women’s Group, St John’s College, Oxford, November 8, 1989
Islington & Hackney Gay Group, London Lesbian & Gay Centre, May 8, 1990
Society for Individual Freedom, October 23, 1990
Re the above, see also the draft – document (32) for 1991.
Conservative Party Conference, Fringe Meeting, Brighton, October 8, 1992
Comments on the report of the Williams Committee..., July 1980
According to the man himself, this is “an official minute of the Meeting of Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and published as such”. I have classed this as a speech. It was in the file with a letter dated June 23, 1980 – not included here.
Censorship: the Current Legal Position, Libertarian Alliance Conference, August 9, 1986
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