The internet has created a bruise-easy generation that is intolerant of people speaking out of turn

Where is the spirit of Charlie Hebdo? You remember the outpouring of grief when 12 journalists were gunned down at the Paris offices of the satirical magazine. We did everything we could to show our solidarity with these martyrs to free speech.

We held a vigil in Trafalgar Square. We projected the Tricolore on to the walls of the National Gallery. And when we all went around with T-shirts saying “Je suis Charlie”, the meaning could not have been clearer. By wearing that logo, we were saying that we may not necessarily have approved of the content of the magazine – or the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed – but we defended absolutely their right to publish.

The phrase “Je suis Charlie” became a meme. It was a hashtag. It was cool. It was on the lips of just about every UK politician. I therefore assumed that everyone accepted the vital connection between free speech – including the freedom to mock and debunk – and economic progress.

When this country rose to greatness in the 18th and 19th centuries, it wasn’t just the result of the industrial revolution, but of a concomitant social and intellectual revolution in which men like John Wilkes helped to throw off the shackles of censorship. And it was no accident that this period of technical innovation was accompanied by a new and astonishing irreverence in the media – bashing the church, bashing the crown – and with cartoons so lewd and scatological that these days they would be deemed not fit to print.