Free speech

In 1642, as the English civil war broke out, government control of printing presses collapsed.  In this new censorship-free environment, all sorts of ideas, previously suppressed were published.  Many senior figures became worried, and it was that worry which lay behind the pamphletAreopagitica, by John Milton – later the author of Paradise Lost.  Almost four centuries…

Departures

There was an inexpressibly sad story reported a few weeks ago.  Helen Jackson died in December 2020 at the age of 101.  She had been a teenager in Missouri in the 1930s, one of ten children in a desperately poor family. She took to running chores on her way home from school for a 93…