Sir - I have watched numerous television reports and read various news items over the last few months, which I find very depressing.

How sad and not entirely unexpected that so many of the protesters outside pubs and town halls, and frightening the Farage family at lunch with their children, are young, naive, and gullible, and so arrogant that rather than spend any time actually listening to, and questioning Farage, they simply turn up to shout down and protest at free speech!

Do they actually want to learn anything, or simply to shout down anyone who doesn't believe that the little they know, or think they know, is right?

What's equally sad is that they think they are behaving commendably!

I bumped into a left/Green 25 year old the other day, who announced that Nigel Farage was appearing in Birmingham, so he would probably go there to join other protesters.

Had he ever bothered to actually attend a speech, or ask Farage, or any other UKIP representatives, any questions? Of course not! At one point, an allusion was made to Farage's comments about the NHS treating the rest of the world, and I asked how our country could afford to do so. The reply? "Invent more money".

I assume he meant "Make more money", but this goes to the shallow rhetoric and knee jerk responses of so many protesters, who have all the objections, but none of the answers.

Having recently decided to undertake a degree, I have been saddened to find that so many of our ostensibly intelligent young people, who have barely left school, and have left the family home for the first time, should sincerely believe they have acquired such understanding and knowledge of the world, that their views are apparently unassailable.

Where is the inquisitiveness, the open mind, the desire to learn the views of others, before condemning them? Where is their respect for the right to be heard, and for freedom of speech, other than merely their own?

By the way, any students reading this, I am more than happy to debate you on this issue.

Will Richards

Malvern