Freedom of speech
Some anti-fascists are very fascistic
Nigel Farage has just met one of the most fascinating aspects of modern politics. He was surrounded in Edinburgh by left-wing ‘anti-fascists’ shouting ‘Racist scum. Go back to England’. The… Continue reading
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Vladimir Putin meets the Munchkins
Late on Friday my editor at the Observer called and asked me to dash off a few words on what was wrong with the Mail and some Conservative MPs demanding… Continue reading
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Bassem Youssef’s arrest is just one example of the attack on free speech in Egypt
Bassem Youssef is better known as ‘Egypt’s John Stewart’. He is a 39 year old cardiologist who made his name with an online comedy programme styled along the lines of… Continue reading
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Julie Burchill, trannies and the free press
If anybody doubts that free speech would be in danger after Leveson it is worth remembering what it is already like in this country. A couple of months back Julie… Continue reading
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Jim Sheridan MP and those “parasites” in parliament
Labour MP Jim Sheridan covered himself in glory this morning by asking why the ‘parasitical press’ is ‘even allowed to come into’ parliament. Westminster watchers will remember the eloquent and… Continue reading
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It’s not a press regulator, it’s a web regulator.
Since the early 1990s, hundreds of millions of words have been produced about the Web. Enthusiasts have told us that it is the greatest communications revolution since Guttenberg invented movable… Continue reading
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The Koran and Richard Dawkins’s survival instinct
I thought that readers might be interested in this new piece from me on Islam, the Koran and Richard Dawkins’s survival instinct.
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An interview with Lars Hedegaard
A couple of days ago I managed to interview Lars Hedegaard – the Danish journalist currently at an undisclosed location under police protection after an assassination attempt at his home… Continue reading
5 Comments The cowardly and hypocritical media abandons Lars Hedegaard
It is now three days since a European journalist was visited at his door by an assassin. For three days I have waited for any response to this. The BBC… Continue reading
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The far-left and the attempted assassination of Lars Hedegaard
The participation of far-right groups in stirring up hate-crimes is rightly and often written about. Less noted is the way in which the far-left demonises figures with whom it disagrees.… Continue reading
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An assassination attempt on Lars Hedegaard
It has just been announced that my friend Lars Hedegaard, a Danish journalist and frequent critic of Islamic fundamentalism, has narrowly survived an assassination attempt at his home in Denmark.… Continue reading
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No-go Britain
In 2008 one of Britain’s best and most courageous men, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, said that there were parts of Britain which had become no-go areas for non-Muslims. For these comments… Continue reading
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Scientologists trap us in the closet
Whenever I give lectures on my book on censorship – Whaddya mean you haven’t read it? Buy it here at a recession-beating price – I discuss the great issues of… Continue reading
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In praise of the bloody-minded Paul Chambers
What freedoms we have in Britain have not come as a rule from revolutions and thunderous declarations of the rights of man. More often than not, our liberties have come… Continue reading
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Lord Justice Leveson and the baby killers
I have worried about Hugh Grant’s understanding of power ever since he started bringing up baby. I first saw him reach for the innocent child at one of the party… Continue reading
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Mo Yan’s malignant apology for ‘necessary’ censorship
The Chinese writer Mo Yan collected the Nobel Prize for Literature last night. In his acceptance lecture, he reiterated his view that a degree of censorship is ‘necessary’ in the… Continue reading
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Simin Daneshvar, Persia’s first female novelist and hope for Iran’s future
There is a Persian proverb which states that ‘books are a man’s best friend.’ Persian literature from the kings of antiquity to the last Shah of the Peacock Throne has,… Continue reading
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Zoe Heller versus Salman Rushdie and Joseph Anton
The literary world anticipates Salman Rushdie’s response to Zoe Heller’s cauterisation of his memoir, Joseph Anton, in the New York Review of Books. Heller’s pointed review is deeply considered. It… Continue reading
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Why The Spectator won’t be part of a state licensed media
Anyone picking up a newspaper in recent days will have noticed that the press has been writing a lot about itself. Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry into press practices and ethics… Continue reading
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Rotherham’s ‘political commissars’ reinforce the need for a free press
‘Clearly she has morphed somewhere in her career from social worker to political commissar.’ These are the words of Minette Marrin, writing of the social worker at the centre of… Continue reading
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