If a high official of the Foreign Office in England could be elected to Parliament, spend a term there in bitter criticism of the Foreign Secretary and then, on defeat, return to work with the minister whom he had sought to destroy, the latter’s position would, I think, be intolerable.
Laski illustrates the potential conflict of interest for civil servants who engage in political criticism.
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More from Harold J. Laski
The intolerance may be Catholic, when it insists that a unity of outlook is essential for the preservation of society; or it may be Protestant when, as with Calvin and the Socinians, it holds that the blasphemous nature of the belief…
We grant toleration in one part of the field only to deny it in another.
When attacks on liberty are political or economic, it is their motive rather than their nature that changes.
He is able, accordingly, to indulge in the twofold luxury not only of preserving his own authority, but also of assisting the persons attacked to enter, if they so choose, the way of truth.
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