Would you rather live in a society where a man is free to criticise religious practices or one where such a man might be dragged to the public square to be damned and shamed as a blasphemer? For me it’s a no-brainer. It’s the former. I want the freedom to object, as scurrilously as I like, to every pious ritual and godly doctrine. We used to call it ‘freedom of thought’, and our ancestors gave their lives to gift us that most cherished of liberties.

The scandal surrounding Nick Timothy has really horrified me

The scandal surrounding Nick Timothy has really horrified me

This is why the scandal surrounding the Conservative MP Nick Timothy has really horrified me. The digital mobbing of the shadow justice secretary merely for criticising the Islamic practice of mass public praying has been profoundly chilling. For bristling at such ritualistic piety and calling it an ‘act of domination’, Timothy has been tarred as racist, a prick, a scumbag and a bigot who’s unfit for public life. ‘Cast him out!’ Keir Starmer essentially barked at Kemi Badenoch in yesterday’s PMQs, as if it were the seventh century and all Koran doubters must be punished with the brutish oblivion of cancellation.

I find it equal parts terrifying and hilarious that we are expected to see Timothy as the bad guy in all this. Are you for real? All he did was give voice to his moral convictions. In response to........

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