In George Orwell’s bleakly prophetic novel, 1984, Oceania’s totalitarian regime strives to mobilise popular support by holding up the figure of Emmanuel Goldstein as a mortal threat to the state and its citizens: He was the primal traitor…all treacheries, acts of sabotage, heresies, deviations, sprang directly out of his teaching. Somewhere or other he was […]
Hungary’s Central European University Under Threat
With the current government-orchestrated threat to the survival of the prestigious Central European University in Budapest, darkness is descending on Hungary. A quarter of a century after the end of communist rule, Hungary’s autocratic Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and his Fidesz Party are systematically dismantling liberal Western institutions and values. Hungary is moving further and […]
The Fourth Estate and The Twilight of Liberal Democracy, Part One
The arrest of over forty journalists in Turkey in the wake of the failed coup against the Erdoğan government in July 2016 – like the mysterious deaths of more than a score of journalists in Russia since October 1999 – serve as chilling reminders of the determination of authoritarian governments to silence oppositional voices in […]
Of Folk Devils And Moral Panic: Hungary’s Referendum On Mandatory EU Migrant Quotas
For several weeks, streets in Budapest, as elsewhere in Hungary, have been awash with government-funded placards representing an overt incitement to racial and religious hatred. Far from portraying those fleeing to Europe from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries as genuine asylum seekers, escaping brutal and apparently intractable civil conflicts, the posters characterise them as […]
Where Left Meets Right: Anti-Semitism In Europe
“The Jews are rallying!” wrote Naz Shah in an infamous Facebook post just months before she was elected Labour MP for Bradford West. “Your school education system only tells you about Anne Frank and the six million Zionists [my emphasis] that were killed by Hitler”, declared a Facebook post shared by Khadim Hussain, then a […]
Budleigh Salterton: Brexit And The Quest For A Mythic England
In the 1980s, when I was teaching at the University of Exeter, my late wife and I often spent fine summer weekends on the pebbly beach at Budleigh Salterton. In addition to its splendidly evocative name there was something wonderfully retro and English about Budleigh Salterton. Tea rooms and bowling greens, gentleman’s outfitters selling striped […]
A Tale Of Two Europes: East And West
Although West European policy makers have been slow to recognise the fact, the Iron Curtain was never the only or necessarily the most important feature dividing the continent. As governments in Hungary and now Poland neutralise many of the key institutions of liberal democracy – robust and impartial courts with far-reaching powers of constitutional oversight, […]
Defending Multiculturalism After The Paris Attacks
Visiting the UK, after eighteen months in Eastern Europe, I have been struck by the easy-going multiculturalism that is Britain. Whether in London, Bristol or Liverpool, the three cities on my itinerary, recent immigrants from the European Union – from France and Spain as well as Poland and Romania – mingle comfortably with Black, Asian […]
Viktor Orbán, Refugees And The Threat To Europe
As European leaders grapple with the unprecedented influx of asylum seekers, Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, has repeatedly expressed his belief that the mostly Middle Eastern and predominantly Muslim refugees represent a grave threat to Europe. Orbán has argued that the ‘migrants’ (he refuses to acknowledge that most of them may be genuine refugees) represent […]
All Content