Free speech
Labour’s outrageous attack on academic free speech
In an extraordinary outburst, a government source has described the new Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, introduced by the…
Will Starmer make the Online Safety Act even worse?
Good God, there’s a lot of guff being talked about the Online Safety Act. This was a piece of legislation…
What Labour could learn from Australia and New Zealand
I’m just coming to the end of a four-week speaking tour Down Under and have spotted some worrying signs of…
I hate hate speech laws
I originally intended to observe that American universities’ anti-Israel protestors and Hamas terrorists deserve each other, because they’ve so much…
Scotland’s Hate Crime Act may have done us all a favour
Scotland’s Hate Crime Act (HCA) has, by common agreement, been an unmitigated disaster. Less than a week old, there are…
Kill the Bill!
The more you study what is going on with the Just Stop Oil protests and the Public Order Bill, the…
Cancelled Kanye West buys cancelled free speech platform Parler
Hear Ye Hear Ye! The news today has broken that Kanye West – who calls himself Ye – has bought Parler, the…
Who's to blame for our censorious students?
Without freedom of speech, you do not have a university. More than any other value, it is freedom of speech…
Salman Rushdie overcame his fear
After Ayatollah Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill him for publishing The Satanic Verses in 1989, Julian Barnes gave Salman Rushdie…
The fight is on to censor Elon Musk’s Twitter
If Elon Musk truly intends to make Twitter a free-speech platform, he’s clearly got a fight on his hands. That…
Free speech shouldn’t depend on billionaires
If you take any interest in social media, Silicon Valley, or the culture wars — which all seem to be…
Mexico is no country for journalists
I’m writing this on my last day in Mexico City, having accompanied my 18-year-old daughter here for the first week…
When did artists become the mob?
‘The mob’s going to want a chicken to kill and they won’t care much who it is,’ wrote John Steinbeck.…
In defence of bad jokes
I was once at a terrific Shabbat dinner where late in the evening one of the other guests suddenly said:…
One man's campaign to protect free speech
Almost three years ago, I spoke on the phone to a man called Harry Miller. A Lincolnshire businessman, he’d just…
Some (tentative) reasons to be cheerful in 2022
Someone sent me a job advert recently for a Junior Research Fellowship at Queen’s College, Oxford. It states: ‘The Queen’s…
My meeting with the Durham University mob
My abiding memory of this fairly appalling year is of the face of the young student at Durham University who…
Will Knowland, Eton and the problem with the teaching misconduct panel
When Eton master Will Knowland was sacked last year over anti-feminist views contained in a YouTube video which he refused…
Why wealth matters in the free speech debate
The divide between the rich and the poor is obvious in Britain today. Whether in terms of income, geography or political…
Justin Trudeau isn't the progressive leader he thinks he is
It came as no surprise to me to see activists ‘celebrating’ Canada Day by setting fire to churches and toppling…
How I was stitched up by the Royal Academy
The Royal Academy, a witch-hunt and me
Don't 'Kill the Bill'
Are the rights of protesters and the rights of all other citizens fairly balanced? Think back to the Extinction Rebellion…
What would ‘sensitivity readers’ have made of my student scoops?
‘Whatever you do, don’t call them snowflakes,’ Caroline said the last time I spoke to Oxford students. ‘That’s not a…
Beware Boris's sinister crackdown on free speech
A Conservative government that boasts it is a defender of free speech against the attacks of ‘the woke’ is about…
Oxford, 'sensitivity readers' and the trouble with safe spaces
The list of things that students must apparently be protected from grows longer every day. Controversial speakers, rude comedians, sombreros…
