Paul Coleman

Paul Coleman is executive director of ADF International (he Tweets @Paul_B_Coleman).

Tuesday

Paul Coleman

Vance criticises Britain: is this a new era for free speech?

From our UK edition

15 min listen

The fallout continues from US vice-president J.D. Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference. Criticising Europe over what he sees as the retreat of free speech, he singled out the case of Adam Smith-Connor in the UK as something that worries him about the direction that Britain is heading in. Smith-Connor was arrested in 2022 and prosecuted for breaching an abortion buffer-zone in Bournemouth. Freddy Gray speaks to Paul Coleman at the ARC conference in London. Paul is executive director of ADF International, a faith-based legal advocacy organisation that has been advocating for Smith-Connor. What is the truth behind abortion buffer-zones? Is this part of a wider 'censorship industrial complex'? And does Vance's criticism signal a new era of free speech?

Thursday

Paul Coleman

How NatCon Brussels was saved from censorship

From our UK edition

When I was first scheduled to speak at this year’s National Conservatism conference (NatCon) in Brussels, I expected it to be a routine speaking engagement. After all, it is a mainstream conservative gathering that has hosted an event in Brussels before, as well as similar conferences in London, Washington DC, Rome, and Miami. Speakers typically include leading political figures from mainstream parties, civil society leaders, authors, political philosophers, historians, and clergy. As I soon discovered, there was nothing routine about this event. Not least because I was turning up to the conference’s third venue after the first and second venues cancelled their bookings at short notice.