The seizure of Ukrainian Orthodox churches and cathedrals and the arrests of its priests have been rightly condemned by the likes of the Pope and the Church of England. But the attempt to divide the Christian faithful over the timing of Christmas Day looks even pettier.
President Zelensky has, regrettably, prosecuted a spurious and reprehensible campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the main Christian denomination in the country for the last 1,000 years.
In the UK, protests condemning acts of alleged blasphemy are escalating at an alarming rate.
The Department for Education and Government Equalities Office must have a contingency plan available to deploy immediately, updating the necessary guidance to ensure that schools can remain true to their ethos.
The confidence to walk the streets safely, the right to interface directly with our elected representatives, the ability to speak our minds freely – these fruits of peaceable British toleration are being eroded by an extremist tendency that has grown unchecked for far too long.
From the ballooning power of progressive HR politics to the growth of de facto blasphemy laws, thirteen years of Conservative rule have made little impact.
A woman has just been arrested not even for speaking, but for thinking, the wrong thoughts. And it is a policy that could be rolled out across the country.
While Muslims here feel comfortably British, French Muslims must conceal their religious convictions to be respectable citizens.
The country, which had made significant progress in its religious freedom policy, is under threat from military forces.
This is not just a priority for our foreign and overseas development policy – people face persecution and even violence right here in Britain.
There must be more to Global Britain than trade and defence. Our liberal values must be at the very heart of the project.
It is no secret that some senior civil servants in the Foreign Office do not share the Prime Minister’s commitment to implementing the Truro Recommendations.
The real risk of all this is that it gets praised – but is then quietly filed away. What needs to happen is a change of Foreign Office culture.
We might all agree that certain bad speech needs to be stopped, but without precise wording innocent speech is caught too.