Nigel Biggar was not an obvious target for cancellation. A New Labourite, a Remainer and a public supporter of gay marriage and abortion up to 18 weeks, he might have seemed almost right-on – for an Oxford Professor of Divinity, at any rate. Nonetheless, when in 2017 he had the temerity to suggest that the British Empire had done some good as well as bad, 170-plus academics signed a letter urging Oxford University to withdraw support for his work. This was one of the first stirrings of ‘cancel culture’, the tactic of quashing wrongthink not by argument or persuasion but by sheer force of numbers.  

Unfortunately for themselves, Biggar’s detractors had picked on the proverbial ‘wrong guy’. Biggar bounced back to lead the fight against woke, helping to set up the Free Speech Union and lobbying for the (still only partially implemented) Freedom of Speech Act. His latest book displays many of the qualities that have made him so effective a campaigner. Its writing is plain and vigorous. It presses its claims doggedly but without a hint of malice. Its prejudices, which are many, are all on its sleeve. 

Keir Starmer needs a reality check

The Baftas n-word row has been very........

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