Published on
12 December 2019
Posted in British Politics, Christianity, Culture, Liberty, Morality in Public, Virtue
Democracy is seen by most people, much of the time, as one of the brightest jewels in the crown of Western culture. Unlike the slavery-based ancient Athenian democracy it is the product of assertion of the freedom and dignity inherent in every human being, and as a result on 12 December every UK citizen over […]
Published on
28 February 2019
Posted in Christianity, Church of England, Conscience, Freedom, Liberalism, Liberty, Morality in Public, Uncategorized
In the coming year Pope Francis seems now likely to canonise the English Cardinal, John Henry Newman, completing a first step taken by Pope Benedict XVI who beatified him (declared him ‘Blessed’) in 2010. The Pope Emeritus has often referred to Newman in the same vein as his fellow-countryman St. Thomas More as figures who, […]
Published on
31 December 2017
Posted in British Politics, Liberty
Earlier this week the Higher Education Minister, Jo Johnson, ‘confirmed plans to allow the newly created Office for Students (OfS) to fine or suspend institutions that fail to protect freedom of speech on campuses’. This announcement came in response to concerns over University guest speakers being wrongly ‘no-platformed’ due to student protests and safe space […]
Published on
29 September 2017
Posted in Liberty, Marriage & Family, Virtue
Last month James Damore, a 28-year-old software engineer, was fired by Google after his critique of the company’s affirmative action policies was leaked online. The full text of the now infamous 10-page memo argued that average biological group differences between men and women ‘in part’ explain the current low representation of women in the tech […]
Published on
30 April 2016
Posted in British Politics, Culture, Education, Human Rights, Liberty, Morality in Public, Social Commentary
There is something Orwellian about the times in which we live. In a recent debate about free speech on the BBC2 Victoria Derbyshire programme, Richard Brooks – the newly-elected Vice-President of the National Union of Students (NUS) – said ‘everyone has an equal right to freedom of speech; however, some people have more equal rights […]
Published on
28 August 2015
‘Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves’ – William Pitt the Younger Earlier in 2015 Baroness Warsi declared that Britain is fighting an ‘ever-losing battle’ against violent extremists and The Guardian reported that ‘more people were being radicalized in their […]
Published on
24 July 2014
As a right to die becomes the subject of yet another House of Lords debate it may be worth revisiting a matter upon which this blog has commented before here and here. The writer has recently seen a film about Virginia Woolf, and it may be of value to shape the discussion with reference to […]
Published on
11 March 2014
Liberty is a premise upon which physician-assisted suicide is routinely advanced. Some of those suffering from serious and incurable illness or distress seek to argue the case that their suffering is a bondage from which only death can free them. Such suffering is, of course, naturally subjective in the sense that what one person might […]