Brendan O'Neill is editor of spiked (http://www.spiked-online.com/). From its website: Launched in 2001 as Britain’s first online-only current-affairs mag, spiked is a metaphorical missile against misanthropy. It’s the publication that puts the case for human endeavour, intellectual risk-taking, exploration, excellence in learning and art, and freedom of speech with no ifs and buts, against the myriad miserabilists who would seek to wrap humans in red tape, dampen down our daring, restrain our thoughts, and police our speech.
spiked is a fan of reason, liberty, progress, economic growth, choice, conviction and thought experiments about the future, and not so big on eco-miserabilism, identikit politicians, nostalgia, dumbing down and determinism.
We echo Saint-Simon, who said: ‘The golden age, which a blind tradition has always placed in the past, is really in front of us.’ spiked is all about laying the ground for, and having a pop at the enemies of, that still-to-come golden age for humankind.
Brendan is also a columnist for the Big Issue in London and for the Australian in Sydney. He blogs for the Daily Telegraph and writes for the Spectator and runs a personal website at brendanoneill.co.uk.
To outsiders, 21st century Britain must look like a pretty liberal country. We don’t imprison people for their political opinions. We no longer seek to ban so-called “obscene” novels, as the authorities tried to do with D.H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” when the unexpurgated version was first published in 1960. We got rid of our blasphemy laws in 2008. The British Board of Film Classification now okays the cinematic release [...]
