WHILE there are no soapboxes (if there ever were) there are still those who feel the need to sound off in public in an established and relatively safe environment which Speakers' Corner ~ in the north-eastern extremity of London's expansive Hyde Park ~ readily and freely provides.

Though in long-term decline, with many fewer orators and greatly diminished numbers of visitors, 'The Corner' as the regulars call it still provides the same opportunity to "get things off your chest".

Whereas the speakers are largely polarised into 'fundamentalist' Christian and Moslem preachers, there remain a handful of 'characters' with their own agenda.

One such might be long-time orator HUE: "I think some might think I 'touch' on too many disparate subjects. But I am not there to give a lecture. I'm not trying to convert anybody to anything. Seeing myself on playback, I notice where I intended to say something, but then I went off on a tangent... That could be another of my shortcomings.

"But you have all kinds of distractions and interruptions. It's all part of the mix. I pride myself that I at least mention topical things. I just hope people find what I say a 'trampoline' to launch into further enquiry and study.

"People there can't pigeon-hole me, or predict what I am going to come out with ~ whereas with Christians or Moslems or a Marxist-Leninist, it's all so much 'safer', because you know what they are going to say! I don't do 'safe'."