Should children be able to decide they want to change gender? This is a question which we’re not going to try and answer at Ears To The House – we’ll quite happily leave the scientists and the religious to argue it over amongst themselves. But whether you believe they should or not, it’s a legitimate question – with a legitimate debate attached to it.

So what happened when Christian Henson of Spitfire Audio got involved in the discussion? Well, the intolerant Twitter mob descended and demanded he was cancelled – the idea you can just disagree with an opinion is anathema to these people. Henson linked to a video of writer Graham Linehan discussing matters like the closure of an NHS gender clinic in London.

Hansen has now been effectively suspended from the company that he co-founded – and all because he said something which upset a few people. We can’t help but think there’s something terribly wrong with all this.

Ears To The House are big fans of free speech. We believe people should be allowed to say what they wish and express their opinions, no matter how unpalatable they may be. For example, we may well mock Danny Rampling’s views on the world, and have every right to do so – but we will also quite happily defend his right to speak on matters as he sees them.

We also understand that it’s illegal to discriminate against employees on the grounds of personal views. So we can’t help but wonder exactly who gave legal advice to Will Evans – seemingly the first CEO in the world with no spine – before he took this step. Not to mention how tone deaf you have to be to boast about how “inclusive” your company is whilst chucking someone out of it for holding an opinion you don’t like.

There’s also nothing inclusive about Spitfire Audio switching off replies in their tweets by the CEO’s pretty pathetic attempt at explaining himself. Our policy at this site is simple – unless there are solid legal reasons for doing otherwise, comments remain open. Future customers at Spitfire Audio might want to ponder whether they want to spend their money with a company that expurgates those they disagree with…