Published on
24 June 2011
Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has given a revealing interview to The Sunday Telegraph on the place of religious belief in Britain today. Despite being billed as ‘a wide-ranging intervention into the growing debate on the place of religion in modern society’, and in spite of starting by making […]
Published on
27 May 2011
Posted in Civil Liberties, Conscience, Freedom, Human Rights, Liberty, Virtue
From a guest blogger: ‘What shall we do to-morrow? What shall we ever do?’ – T. S. Eliot If a substance were proved to be edible, legal, and productive of no physical or mental effects beyond an extremely pleasurable but incapacitating intoxication, would it be reasonable to say that there were any moral problems in […]
Published on
10 May 2011
Posted in British Politics, Civil Liberties, World Affairs
The Scottish National Party (SNP) have won a clear majority in elections to the devolved Edinburgh legislature, and will become the first party ever to form a majority government through it – a remarkable result given that the Scottish Parliament uses a system designed in part to prevent the election of majority governments. Considering that […]
Published on
11 March 2011
To the delight of many of his foes, and no doubt to the chagrin of many who voted him, Barack Obama has announced the resumption of Bush-era Military Commissions for trying detainees held at Guantánamo Bay. Long after the deadline passed for the President to deliver on his pledge to close Guantánamo within a year […]
Published on
10 March 2011
Posted in British Politics, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Europe, Islam, Liberty, Public Policy, Religion
Guidelines have now been published for the implementation of France’s much-publicised ban on the wearing of full face-coverings in public places, which will come into force next month. The Guardian reports that – with more than a slight reminder of Communist Vietnam – women caught wearing the burka will be ‘given a citizenship class to […]
Published on
7 February 2011
Posted in Civil Liberties, Europe, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Liberty, Public Policy, World Affairs
Speculation in the press currently reports that the government are poised to allow MPs a free vote on the issue of whether prisoners should be allowed to vote in UK elections, after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the UK’s blanket ban on prisoner voting breaches human rights. Setting aside the specific […]
Published on
28 January 2011
SERIES ON HUMAN FREEDOM: PART THREE The third installment in our series looks at what we mean when we use the word ‘freedom’, and is based on a presentation given by a guest discussant at the first session of the Thomas More Institute’s reading group entitled ‘What’s So Good About Freedom?’. The presentation, and this […]
Published on
24 January 2011
Posted in Abortion, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Liberty, United States of America
It was fifty years ago this week that John F. Kennedy delivered his famous inauguration speech. Despite our current love affair with increasingly younger and more photogenic leaders in the West, Kennedy remains the youngest man ever to be elected President of the United States, and probably ranks among the most handsome. He is often […]