Leveson: Don’t let the state frighten you
If David Cameron had any sense, he would stand up in the Commons and say “I am withdrawing the Royal Charter. The law officers have assured me that Lord… Read more
Christopher Hitchens’s lefty publisher begged from him – and then betrayed him
Before the crash of 2007, as aid agencies were asking the governments of what we once called ‘the rich world’ to wipe out poor countries’ debts, Christopher Hitchens received a… Read more
'Murdoch betrays everyone in the end'
My guard goes up when people in power say that they believe in investigative journalism. Everybody says they do, of course. Then everyone says they have a sense of humour,… Read more
Export-only justice
In the last few years lawyers have begun to gush about the ‘Sumption effect’. They were not thinking of Jonathan Sumption QC’s fine legal mind — which was of such… Read more
Whose freedom? Whose press?
A love for freedom of the press inspired Milton, Voltaire, Jefferson, Madison, Mill and Orwell. Ringing declarations of the right of citizens to read and write what they choose have… Read more
Nowhere to hide
Ever since the millennium, I have wondered how long the utopian faith in the emancipatory potential of the web will last. Of course, we know the new technologies give the… Read more
Censorship Olympics
The guards would not let me walk round the Olympic park. ‘We’re in lockdown because of a security alert,’ one explained. The rain fell. The overbearing policing intimidated. ‘London is… Read more
Web of tyrants
The internet can promote freedom and democracy – it’s a shame it also facilitates mob rule and witch-hunts Even those who are wary of the utopianism the net has generated… Read more
Nick Cohen
I looked at it and was astonished. It was not that he disliked my ideas — he was entitled to disagree — but that he had attacked a book I… Read more
Liberal England dies again
The Lib Dems’ troubles are a result not only of coalition and foolish promises, but of a resurgence of the old left-right division In 1935, George Dangerfield published The Strange… Read more

