Freedom of speech
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…
The proof that free speech in universities is in peril
About 18 months ago, I attended a debate at Policy Exchange, the think tank founded by Nick Boles, Francis Maude…
Welcome to the world you created, J.K. Rowling
Welcome to the world you created, J.K. Rowling
The chilling truth about the Facebook advertising boycott
The printed press is not a natural ally of Facebook. Silicon Valley publishers have hoovered up so much advertising that…
Will Cambridge University finally stand up for free speech?
When Dr Priyamvada Gopal, a University of Cambridge academic, tweeted ‘White lives don’t matter’ and ‘Abolish whiteness’ in response to…
The young oppress their future selves
Matt Ridley’s fine recent Times column was hardly the first to raise the alarm about the pseudo-Soviet intolerance of the…
How my disabled son has changed my mind about political correctness
Here’s another stock joke for your collection: Pembroke College, Cambridge, has cancelled a fancy dress party themed on Around the…
The 5 per cent of people who decide everything (and how to be one of them)
What happens when 95 per cent of people like something, but 5 per cent of people prefer something else? You might think…
