Brendan O'Neill

Brendan O'Neill is the editor of Spiked and a columnist for The Australian and The Big Issue.

‘Korangate’ and Britain’s new blasphemy rules

27 February 2023 5:44 pm

Imagine living in a country so religiously uptight that even making a smudge on a copy of the Koran could…

Kate Forbes isn’t homophobic for opposing same-sex marriage

22 February 2023 9:31 pm

Let me get this right. In Scotland’s political class it is de rigueur to believe that someone with a penis…

The rewriting of Roald Dahl is an act of cultural vandalism

19 February 2023 9:57 pm

The vandals have come for Roald Dahl. His books for children are to be cleansed of their ‘offensive’ content. Sensitivity…

The sinister celebrification of Shamima Begum

7 February 2023 7:07 pm

So is Shamima Begum a celebrity now? She was splashed on the front page of the Times’ Magazine over the…

Shame on the Cardinal Pell funeral protesters

3 February 2023 12:08 am

In Sydney today, the LGBT movement had its Westboro Baptist Church moment. It protested at someone’s funeral. Like that cranky…

The Sunak seatbelt row is a pathetic ‘scandal’

20 January 2023 9:47 pm

Remember when Britain knew how to do a good political scandal? Secretaries of State sharing showgirls with Soviet attachés. A…

Nicola Sturgeon and the truth about ‘transphobia’

18 January 2023 1:24 am

This is a shameful week for Scottish nationalism. Let us state plainly what has happened: the government in Westminster has…

The war on JK Rowling

13 January 2023 11:27 pm

The crusade to erase JK Rowling continues. The latest ruse of the Rowlingphobes is to scrub her name from her…

Prince Harry has done something unforgivable

7 January 2023 5:30 pm

I’m just going to say it: I’m Team William. In that scrap that Prince Harry says happened at Nottingham Cottage,…

What unites Greta Thunberg and Andrew Tate

31 December 2022 8:21 pm

So, are you Team Tate or Team Thunberg? Do you side with the muscled misogynist who has convinced tragic TikTok…

Can Jeremy Clarkson’s critics take a joke?

20 December 2022 12:44 am

There is always a tipping point in Twitterstorms. A moment at which the digital hysteria over something somebody said becomes…

The Twitter Files show Donald Trump should never have been banned

14 December 2022 4:20 am

The latest Twitter Files revelations are the most disturbing yet. They show how the employees of this private company, not…

When will Harry and Meghan leave us alone?

7 December 2022 5:00 pm

Is anyone else starting to feel harassed by Harry and Meghan? There’s no escaping them. Open Spotify and there they…

The Palace has treated Lady Hussey cruelly

1 December 2022 10:21 pm

On the Lady Susan Hussey affair – is anyone else more horrified by the Palace’s behaviour than Lady Hussey’s? Yes,…

Baddielphobia and the ugly truth about anti-Semitism

23 November 2022 5:54 pm

David Baddiel could not have asked for better evidence for his thesis that ‘Jews don’t count’ than the online reaction…

What happened to Stephen Fry’s belief in scientific reason?

21 November 2022 1:47 am

Here’s my question for Stephen Fry after he said his trans friends had felt ‘deeply upset’ by some of the…

Trumpism is dead, long live populism!

10 November 2022 9:47 pm

Donald Trump is done for. Trumpism too. That’s the main takeaway of the Midterms. Many of the candidates Trump backed…

What's wrong with being an apocalypse denier?

29 October 2022 5:15 pm

This week, on BBC radio, I made a confession: I am a denier. Not a climate-change denier – an apocalypse…

Support the strikes!

18 October 2022 9:00 pm

There are no two groups more different than climate protesters and striking workers. The former are mostly plummy layabouts, posh…

Why won't Graham Norton speak up for JK Rowling?

14 October 2022 8:24 pm

Is silence still violence? I’m just wondering because this week Graham Norton was asked about the deluge of hateful slurs…

Morrissey is the rock’n’roll rebel we need

11 October 2022 1:31 am

There was a truly electric moment at the Morrissey gig at the Palladium in London last night. Moz was introducing…

It's no surprise eco zealots targeted Captain Tom

4 October 2022 4:25 am

What drives someone to do something as morally depraved as throw human faeces on a monument to Captain Sir Tom…

Does the EU respect the Italian people?

27 September 2022 4:00 pm

I know we’re all meant to be quaking over the election result in Italy. That we’re all supposed to be…

The trouble with ‘bourgeois’ environmentalism

24 September 2022 12:45 am

The left needs to shake off its ‘bourgeois environmentalism’. It needs to distance itself from the ‘bourgeois environmental lobby’ and…

Something extraordinary is happening in Iran

21 September 2022 11:35 pm

The images coming out of Iran are remarkable. Women are ripping off their hijabs and burning them in public. They’re…