The violence of the Safe Space
On 23 January I took part in a debate about free speech on campus at the University of California Irvine. These were my opening remarks.The most striking thing about Safe Spaces on campus is how unsafe...
View ArticleThe myth of hate speech
On 17 February I spoke about hate speech at spiked’s conference ‘The New Intolerance on Campus’. Here is what I said.I completely reject the category of hate speech. I’m always surprised to find that...
View ArticleSegregation staggers back to life
– The Australian, 20 February 2016 –Racial segregation is back. That scourge of the 20th century, with its racialised drinking fountains and buses with whites-only seats, is staggering back to life,...
View ArticleIf you love Europe, you should hate the EU
This is the text of a speech I gave at Cambridge University on 1 March 2016.The Brexit camp has asked the BBC to do it one, pretty small favour in the run-up to the EU referendum: to differentiate...
View ArticleThe students who have turned their backs on Enlightenment
– The Australian, 26 March 2016 –When you hear the phrase student radical, what image comes to mind? A freewheeling warrior against The Man? A fighter for the right to party? A dandily dressed agitator...
View ArticleSome thoughts on censorship
On 13 April I took part in a conversation about censorship as part of Freedom Day at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. These were my conversation kickstarters.– Once, we had political...
View ArticleGive nanny the boot
– The Australian, 7 May 2016 –There’s nothing like a bit of larrikinism to lift your spirits in these finger-wagging, freedom-squashing times.On Wednesday I was reading about how the EU, the world’s...
View ArticleHey guys, watch out for the word police
– The Australian, 4 June 2016 –It’s official: no zone of life is safe from the long noses and wagging fingers of the lifestyle cops and word police.Not content with having strangled social life with...
View ArticleWhat we are voting for
On 11 June I spoke at a youth Brexit rally in London. Here’s what I said.One of the downsides to being a Leave campaigner is that we sometimes sound negative. For the simple reason that we are saying...
View ArticleWho you're allowed to hate
– On 15 June spiked hosted a discussion on hate speech at the October Gallery in London. Here are my opening remarks. –One of the most curious things about 21st-century Europe is that it presents...
View ArticleBrexit has breathed life back into history
– The Australian, 2 July 2016 –Political quakes don’t get much more seismic than this.Just over a week ago, Britain had a competent Prime Minister, a functioning opposition, and decent diplomatic...
View Article‘History isn’t finished; it’s just getting going’
I was interviewed about Brexit for a German newspaper. Here’s what I said.– Mr O’Neill, since the British voted for leaving the European Union, people have been talking about a deep unprecedented...
View ArticleWhite shame is the new white pride
– Penthouse, August 2016 –Are you white? Do you have a dick? If your answer to these questions is “Yes”, then you should be checking your privilege.You should be watching what you say. You should be...
View ArticleFlipping a middle finger at orthodoxy
– The Australian, 13 August 2016 –In all the ink spilt and fury tweeted over Bill Leak’s indigenous dad cartoon, one word has cropped up again and again: offensive. Leak’s cartoon was “extremely...
View ArticleHatred: a defence
— Speech in Adelaide, 13 August 2016 —I come from a country where you can be arrested for expressing Christian beliefs.As you can probably tell from my accent, I’m not talking about Saudi Arabia, or...
View ArticleKill 18C to combat racism
– The Australian, 22 August 2016 –Leftists take it as a given that if you are anti-racist then you’ll be a cheerleader for section 18C. This bit of the Racial Discrimination Act acts as a “safety...
View ArticleThe Beauty of Brexit, or How British Voters Just Made the World a Better Place
– Speech for the IPA, in Canberra, 24 August 2016 –The famous opening line of The Communist Manifesto, a book I highly recommend to you all, is: “A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of...
View ArticleThe tyranny of twee
– Telegraph, 29 August 2014 –Can anyone stop the tsunami of twee? It seems not. Britain is being swallowed up by tweeness. Like a B-movie style blob, only pink and sugary rather than black and deathly,...
View ArticleRise of the gay authoritarians
– The Australian, 24 September 2016 –The great Anthony Burgess is best known for his novel A Clockwork Orange, famously immortalised in blood-spattered celluloid by Stanley Kubrick. But he wrote what I...
View ArticleIn defence of the crowd
After Brexit in June and now the victory of Donald Trump, everyone’s freaking out about the howling little people and their ripping-up of the political script.2016 is the year of rage, commentators...
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