Saddam’s end: yes, it was an atrocity
Ten justifications for describing the killing of Saddam Hussein as “an atrocity” [More >>>]
Category: Civil Liberties
Denying Holocaust deniers a voice
President Ahmadinejad’s conference of Holocaust deniers is an objectionable event, but there’s no justification either for German and Austrian laws under which a Holocaust denier can be (and in the case of David Irving, has been) sent to prison for years for expressing their absurd if unpalatable views [More >>>]
Blair takes the blame for slavery, but not for Iraq
Tony Blair’s almost-apology on behalf of Britain for the slave trade, for which neither he nor other Brits alive today bear any responsibility, devalues the concept of ‘apology’ and exemplifies the ignorant and ahistorical application of modern ethical values to those of an earlier age when slavery had both legal and biblical approval. Better to tackle current slavery, practised in various parts of the world to this day [More >>>]
Former liberal commentators prepare to jump ship
Three commentators in the liberal press (Polly Toynbee, Mary Riddell, Nick Cohen) have recently attacked fundamental principles of liberty, civil rights and the rational society in implausible terms at the very time when these principles need to be most robustly defended [More >>>]
Extraordinary Rendition: Stephen Grey’s ‘Ghost Plane’ is a crime story with a message
Stephen Grey, principal exposer of Extraordinary Rendition, chronicles this criminal enterprise in a highly readable but chilling book, ‘Ghost Plane’. The moral: never trust even the most benign government with sweeping powers that will sooner or later be exploited and abused by a successor. [More >>>]
Muzzling the Chief Inspector of Prisons
The home secretary seemed to be doing the right thing by bowing to expert opinion and dropping his plan to abolish the office of the independent chief inspector of prisons, but then apparently achieved the same result by sneaking last-minute amendments into the Bill [More >>>]
On not lifting the veil: a genderist postscript
The controversy over the wearing of the niqab (full veil) has largely overlooked its most objectionable feature, namely the attitude that it implies to relations between men and women in a free society [More >>>]
North London’s Rachel breaks out into verse
Don’t miss the brilliant verses by Rachel North, 7/7 bombing victim, on New Labour’s assault on our civil liberties [More >>>]
The Hain manifesto deserves a salute
Peter Hain’s Observer article of 17/09/06 reads like a manifesto for a leadership bid and contains clear if coded criticisms of some of the most objectionable features of the Blair premiership. It would be tragic, not just for him, if despite his many merits he were to be disqualified by his South African and Liberal pasts, both wholly unobjectionable [More >>>]
Call me intolerant and I’ll hit you
Did the Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman really say: “Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence”? Too good to be true, surely? [More >>>]