Sadly, not all rebels are as attractive as this . . .

THE best film of the autumn is Official Secrets, in which Keira Knightley (pictured) plays the brave and principled GCHQ worker Katharine Gun.

She was appalled to discover the organisation had been asked to gather information that might be used to blackmail members of the UN Security Council into supporting the stupid Iraq War. So she leaked the email making this request. Brave and brilliant legal advice saved her from jail.

But not all opponents of bad government policies are as attractive and easy to defend as Ms Gun. I would like to put in a word here for former Labour MP Chris Williamson, who has just been banned from standing as a Labour candidate, apparently for expressing an opinion. Hold on tight, please, and wait for the end.

He said he thought Labour had been ‘too apologetic’ about antisemitism. Well, this is a point of view. You may not share it, and I may not share it, but it is one someone could legitimately hold without himself being a racial bigot. Whatever happened to ‘I disagree with everything you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it’?

But I think there’s much more to this. I think Mr Williamson, who I do not know and with whom I share few opinions, may really be in trouble for another reason. I think it is because he has dissented from the near-universal view that this country should attack Syria because of its alleged (and unproven) use of poison gas.

This is, as I know well, a very sensitive area in which to tread, and if we lived in a despotism – which of course we don’t – it would be positively dangerous to do so. Why, you might be prevented from standing as an MP for one of the major parties.