It’s the tech giants, not socialist politicians, who are coming for our liberty
For much of the 20th century the political right was preoccupied with the threat to free societies posed by the state. In its scariest incarnation, the big state was represented by totalitarian...
View ArticleChina’s censorship machine sanitises Fight Club
The first rule of Fight Club in China, it turns out, is that the authorities come out of it looking good. The original movie ends with Edward Norton’s character killing his imaginary alter ego Tyler,...
View ArticleHow Russia descended into authoritarianism
Russia’s totalitarian turn since the invasion of Ukraine is the culmination of 22 years of Putinism. From the beginning, when he first became prime minister in 1999 and then president in 2000, Vladimir...
View ArticleFrom Roald Dahl to Ian Fleming, censorship is good for the book trade
First Roald Dahl; now Ian Fleming. Censorship is not, it turns out, a simple matter. Both men had a very dark side. It isn’t only the sexist and racist language in the James Bond books but also, for...
View ArticleCensorship does not work
I have never believed that it is the role of journalists to tell people what to think. We are not the arbiters of truth. Our job is to help make sense of the world we live in, explain things fairly and...
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JK Rowling is right to scorn Scotland’s new Hate Crime Act
The town of Salem, Massachusetts, has become synonymous with the witch hunt, but between the 16th and 18th centuries the Scottish engaged in the persecution of witches at a rate far higher than their...
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