The socially distanced and politically distanced Queen’s Speech

Some good things, a few bad ones, some absences – and an opportunity missed not so much to level up Britain as to level with voters.

Emily Carver: To bolster free speech in universities, we need laws taken off the statute book, rather than added to it

The Government should instead look into reviewing the Equality Act, which makes these institutions subject to its harassment provision.

Andrew Tettenborn: The Welsh Government’s flawed “anti-racist” instructions to local authorities

Concentration on “micro-aggressions” at work threatens to make any kind of workplace interaction a free speech minefield.

Philip Booth: Ordinary people have suffered under our hate crime rules. Patel is right to change the system.

Controversial but reasonable opinions can be the basis of a visit from the police or even arrest.

Free speech and the culture wars. It’s Fox to the rescue.

He gave a brave speech to the Adam Smith Institute on some of the most contentious issues of our time.

Iain Dale: Biden seems to forget his Defense Secretary’s name, and the media says nothing. Imagine if it had happened to Trump.

Plus: Piers Morgan wasn’t ‘cancelled’. And: We need a conversation on women’s safety.

Andrew Tettenborn: Protecting free speech at universities. The Government’s proposals are a start, but don’t go far enough.

It has a wonderful opportunity to preserve this value on campus. One that may not present itself again for some time.

Caroline ffiske: How non-crime hate incidents came into force. And why they should be reformed – or scrapped altogether.

Introduced with the best of intentions, they have grown and morphed beyond reason – more so than Macpherson could surely have imagined.

Protecting free speech. University legislation will help. But ministers need to speak out more.

Williamson’s new policy is an important step – but Conservatives cannot legislate themselves out of the culture wars.

Andrew Lewer: It’s time to turn off the taxpayer funding of left-wing student union campaigning

Judging by its social media activity, the National Union of Students’ main current focus is ‘decolonising the curriculum’.

Radical: A University lesson from the Kathleen Stock fracas. It’s harder to support her if you’re a younger academic.

Not when they know that their peers – and the academic administrators they depend on for preferment – are watching for any ‘misstep’.

Why shouldn’t Tories use Parler?

The app was never about absolute free speech, but promoting conversations between different political groups.

Toby Young: O’Brien is wrong – censorship is never the answer

Our columnist took issue with Lockdown Sceptics in his article yesterday. The Editor of that site replies.

John Bald: The use of provocative language to stimulate thinking is a teaching style that has become unfashionable

The headmaster of Eton has used the Equality Act to justify suppressing free speech at the school. That he stays in post is Eton’s loss.

An Eton mess

One of the school’s teachers has been fired for making a video about differences between men and women.