The BBC marked the death of MF Husain last Thursday by giving a Mayfair gallery curator a 30-second soundbite to describe one of the best artists of our time. The best tribute Britain could give Husain would be for the Royal Academy to organise a major retrospective of his art and include in the exhibition the supposedly offensive works, so viewers can realise how confected the charges of his accusers were. For that to happen, the police would need to break with precedent and promise to protect freedom of expression from its enemies. Politicians and cultural commentators would need to go further and find the courage to spit out a commitment to a simple principle: in free societies, artists have the right to paint what they damn well want and citizens have the right to look at what they damn well want.