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Kate Smurthwaite asks whether we've ever really had free speech, whether we really want it and why language matters so very much anyway.

When Kate Smurthwaite appeared on Question Time in January, she was trending UK-wide on Twitter. Along with praise ("She was ace" Dan Hodges, The Telegraph) came the inevitable deluge of hate mail and Twitter abuse. The hashtag used by those who disagreed with her was #LeftieCockWomble. It was meant as an insult, now she's claimed it, named her show after it. And she still doesn't know what it means.

About Kate

After winning a 2013 Three Weeks Editors' Choice Award, the left wing, feminist, atheist, highbrow comedian has been writing for BAFTA-winning BBC Three show The Revolution Will Be Televised and the UK's most popular political comedy show Have I Got News For You. She has toured across the UK and overseas and MCed the Hammersmith Apollo for the Stand Up For Austerity benefit with Jo Brand and Mark Steel.

This is her sixth News At Kate political comedy hour. Kate's solo show from last year The News At Kate: My Professional Opinion was filmed on the South Bank as part of the Women of The World (WOW) festival. You can see it here:

Kate's other achievements include appearances on over 700 TV and radio shows including This Morning, Woman's Hour, The Big Questions, Moral Maze and Question Time. She writes regular humourous columns for New Internationalist, Feminist Times and The Teacher and has also written for The Guardian, The Independent and Cosmopolitan.

Kate has two other shows at the fringe: an interactive science-based comedy show about great apes and evolution called The Evolution Will Be Televised (8.20pm Ciao Roma 2nd-23rd, not 12th) and the Free Fringe's late night variety show Late With Kate (midnight, Canon's Gait, 2nd-23rd not Sundays, guest host on 12th).