Freedom of speech
I’m a culture war addict
Reading Melissa Lawford’s excellent analysis in the Sunday Telegraph, ‘Putin can’t afford peace – Russia’s economy is hooked on war’,…
Are you offended by ‘hard-working families’?
Scarcely a day passes without a newspaper story about some absurd ‘language guide’ issued by a public body. This week…
Buckingham University’s shameful treatment of Professor Tooley
One of many reasons I felt blessed, seven years ago, to be offered a professorship at the private University of…
Should free speech campaigners hope Andrew Gwynne is prosecuted?
David McKelvey, a former detective chief inspector in the Met Police, has called for the prosecution of Andrew Gwynne, the…
How Ipso surrendered to the trans lobby
Two months ago, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) upheld a complaint against The Spectator for referring to Juno Dawson,…
Can I be cancelled twice?
One of the biggest regrets of my life was saying yes when Jo Johnson asked if I wanted to be…
Why Elon Musk shouldn’t be kicked out of the Royal Society
In a notorious interview in the Sunday Times in 2007, the Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson said, among other things,…
Carry on Kafka: this is our Brave New World
An ex-copper who blogs as Dominic Adler – not his real name – came up with a good phrase this…
The true meaning of free speech
Right after Donald Trump’s landslide, I opined on YouTube that this turning point could sound the death knell for Woke…
Will Keir Starmer get me banned from football games?
Last Saturday, I made the 400-mile round trip to Burnley with my 16-year-old son Charlie to see Queens Park Rangers…
A British First Amendment wouldn’t save free speech
Does the United Kingdom need a First Amendment? That’s a question I’ve been thinking about a lot recently, given the…
Labour’s backwards steps on free speech
Free speech advocates like me need to stop talking about the meagre gains we made under the last government because…
How to exploit a crisis
The phrase ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’ is often attributed to Winston Churchill, but it’s something the…
The death of free speech in Britain
In Michel Houellebecq’s satirical novel Soumission, the French elite submits to Islamic rule rather than accept a National Front government.…
How do you solve a problem like debanking?
As I sat down to write this column, an old friend let me know he’d just been ‘debanked’. That is,…
How Ireland lost its craic
When did the Irish lose their sense of humour?
Who gets to decide what is ‘harmful’?
Three years ago this week marked my first misgivings about the government’s Covid lockdown. Sure, I was late to that…
I’m on Andrew Doyle’s side – for now
I’ve agreed to interview the author and journalist Andrew Doyle about his new book at the Conservative party conference –…
The day I got heckled at Speakers’ Corner
Monday was the 150th anniversary of Speakers’ Corner and, in the hope of drumming up some publicity for the Free…
Will my kitchen be designated a ‘safe space’?
As the father of four children who will be entering higher education in the next few years, I’m worried that…
Are cancel-culture activists aware of their sinister bedfellows?
Is there a woke case to be made for freedom of expression? Jacob Mchangama certainly seems to think so. This…
Nicola Sturgeon’s last laugh
I was delighted to discover that the University of Bristol has been advising students how to address those who identify…
Why we should worry about the censorship of the far left
There are many important, principled arguments for free speech. But one of the most convincing is purely tactical. Why empower…
Who’s really being silenced on campus?
The never-ending social justice messaging from our college and university presidents and their legions of diversity, equity and inclusion officers…
Scotland's Hate Crime Bill would have a chilling effect on free speech
Among the encroachments on Milton’s three supreme liberties contained in Humza Yousaf’s Hate Crime Bill is a cloturing of the…
