Human Rights
The ancient Greek take on human rights
While Greek and Roman thinkers were influential in developing ideas such as citizenship, justice and equality, the notion of universal…
Haircuts are a human right!
During the immigration deluge in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seems one Afghan and one Indian national…
Chambers of horrors: The radical barristers who really lay down the law in Britain
The facade of Garden Court Chambers in Lincoln’s Inn Fields is reassuringly traditional. The barristers who work there occupy buildings…
Who’d dare join the SAS now?
We should all feel scared to our bones about the persecution of the SAS, soldiers harried through the courts for…
The human rights clampdown on free speech
On Wednesday, in a decision that ought to get a good deal more attention than it will, our Supreme Court…
High life
Gstaad OK sport fans, have you been enjoying the concentration camp Olympics? I’m sure the Uighurs in the Chinese gulag…
Have we reached peak human rights?
After the Colston debacle, you might be forgiven for having missed the other legal story that broke this week. The…
My conflicted loyalty to Newcastle United
The second thing I learned about football, after moving to London, is that you can never, ever switch your allegiance.…
In search of refuge
Hardly a day goes by without headlines about immigrants, asylum-seekers and refugees. In the ancient world, movements of people were…
Is Ireland cosying up to China?
In 2019, the then-deputy prime minister of Ireland Simon Coveney spoke at the UN Human Rights Council, where he underlined Ireland’s…
Why does China think it can bully backbench MPs like me?
Does the Chinese Communist Party understand how our parliamentary democracy works? The evidence from the last 24 hours suggests not.…
Meghan Markle and the trouble with human rights law
Meghan Markle hailed her victory in a high court privacy case as a ‘comprehensive win’ over the Mail on Sunday’s…
China’s forced issue
Who profits from Uyghur labour camps?
The modern celebrity silk: Geoffrey Robertson ticks all the boxes
What makes a barrister famous? At one time, many of the best advocates were also prominent politicians, whose day job…
Punks vs. Putin
What makes for meaningful political protest? In regimes where ideology was taken seriously (such as the Soviet Union or America…
Vote for freedom!
‘Out’ campaigners picture leaving the EU as a liberation. It wouldn’t be
Rwanda’s new tragedy
The ultimate ‘donor darling’ is becoming a dictatorship whose critics live in fear
The Australian way
Turning back boats saves lives
Death watch
If you don’t think legalising ‘assisted dying’ is a slippery slope, you haven’t been paying attention
Barometer
First test The driving test celebrated its 80th anniversary. The first person to take the test, R.E.L. Beene of Kensington,…
The Spectator’s Notes
Amnesty International and others have placed a large newspaper advertisement telling Michael Gove ‘Don’t Scrap Our Human Rights’. The ad…
Letter from Paris
Like many journalists, I’m a bit of a know-it-all — when information is touted as ‘new’, especially in government reports,…
Mao’s violent disciple
Much has been written about Deng Xiao-ping (1904–1997), most recently by Ezra Vogel in Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of…
Why a bill of rights is the wrong answer
I’ve been thinking about the Conservative party’s proposal for a Bill of Rights and am finding it difficult to make…
Set our footie fans free!
‘Bubble matches’ sound like something quaint. In fact,they’re an outrage against civil liberties
