Freedom of speech

Why Elon Musk shouldn’t be kicked out of the Royal Society

7 December 2024 9:00 am

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

23 November 2024 9:00 am

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

23 November 2024 9:00 am

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?

2 November 2024 9:00 am

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

26 October 2024 9:00 am

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

7 September 2024 9:00 am

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

31 August 2024 9:00 am

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

31 August 2024 9:00 am

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?

8 July 2023 9:00 am

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

3 June 2023 9:00 am

When did the Irish lose their sense of humour?

Who gets to decide what is ‘harmful’?

13 May 2023 9:00 am

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

1 October 2022 9:00 am

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

2 July 2022 9:00 am

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’?

25 June 2022 9:00 am

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?

2 April 2022 9:00 am

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

12 February 2022 9:00 am

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

26 January 2021 3:36 am

There are many important, principled arguments for free speech. But one of the most convincing is purely tactical. Why empower…

campus

Who’s really being silenced on campus?

2 November 2020 6:14 am

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

22 August 2020 9:40 pm

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

8 August 2020 9:00 am

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

18 July 2020 9:00 am

Welcome to the world you created, J.K. Rowling

The chilling truth about the Facebook advertising boycott

4 July 2020 9:00 am

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?

27 June 2020 2:35 am

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

21 October 2017 9:00 am

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

19 March 2016 9:00 am

Here’s another stock joke for your collection: Pembroke College, Cambridge, has cancelled a fancy dress party themed on Around the…