Freedom in a Puritan Age

At a recent Leeds Salon discussion, Tiffany Jenkins, Nigel Walsh, Kenneth Hay and Antonia Stowe considered the question of ‘what is good art?’

At a recent Manchester Salon event, Helen Reece and Anna Percy discussed new domestic violence legislation that expands the definition of DV to include ‘emotional abuse’ and ‘coercive control’.

Paul Thomas reviews ‘British Workers & the US Civil War’: James Heartfield’s pamphlet that tells the little-known story of how Lancashire cotton workers supported the fight against slavery.

Paul Thomas says that while a few may turn their noses up at chain stores, and prefer ‘independent’ shops, there is much to be said in praise of supermarkets.

Keith Lauchlan argues that the obligation to ‘check one’s privilege’ before engaging in political discourse is currently a greater threat to freedom of expression than state censorship.

Chris Ashford and Sara Mohammadzadeh note how sexual freedom has shifted from the radical narrative of the 70s to the more cautious and homogenous attitude of the twenty-first century.

Jane Fae says the post-Leveson free speech argument is a very partisan one that defends the rights of the privileged few and ignores the pernicious effects of press bullying.

If programmes like Ripper Street explicitly appeal to transgressive libidinal desire, but current obscenity law forbids their use for sexual pleasure, are the BBC and others enabling criminal behaviour?

Jane Fae argues that the real danger to individual freedom lies in the sub-legal level: the legal establishment’s view of what the law OUGHT to say.

Following the Simon Walsh case, Nick Cowen challenges the arguments of those academic legal theorists who claimed the objections to the ‘extreme pornography law’ were overwrought or unjustified.