Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

Dear Ed Balls,
Much as I’d like to send a congratulatory letter to Alistair Darling this morning for being honest when it comes to Downing Street bullying, I thought your disgraceful plans for sex education in faith schools needed to be brought to people’s attention.  You tried to deny yesterday that plans for compulsory sex education in England’s [...]

Dear Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle,
Yet again, I am dismayed by the lack of protection for free speech in this country.  It seems as though upsetting and offending people is still illegal in this country, yet the USA and no doubt many other developed nations who offer constitutional protection for free speech make the UK look [...]

Dear readers,
Unusually for me, I’m honestly a bit lost for words this morning because I am still dumbstruck by the astonishing things that have happened in the last 24 hours.  I keep telling myself I should feel angry, yet I appear to be completely paralysed by an overwhelming sense of “WTF?!”  from yesterday’s events, and [...]

Dear readers,
Two stories from today’s papers have left me dismayed and angry.
In Ireland, we have secular campaigners in the Irish Republic defying a strict new blasphemy law which has come into force by publishing a series of anti-religious quotations online and promising to fight the legislation in court.  The new law, passed in July, means that [...]

Dear Lillian Ladele,
Your refusal to conduct civil partnership ceremonies because they were against your Christian beliefs has become one of the most intriguing court battles that I have ever seen.  Yesterday, Appeal Court judges ruled that your infamous refusal constituted a breach of equality laws and that the right to express a strong Christian faith [...]

Dear Jack Straw,
You will no doubt be glad that most of the media is focusing on the Glasgow East by-election this morning, because it gets you off the hook.  Over the past several months, away from the public eye, you have instigated some of the brutal attacks on civil liberties ever seen under this Labour [...]

From the Independent: The far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders today won his appeal against the Government’s decision to ban him from entering Britain. The politician, who has been accused of Islamophobia, was told at the start of this year by the then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that he would be refused entry should he attempt to [...]

Dear Johann Hari,
Much as I find your Independent columns rather dull affairs for the most part, today I will make an exception.  Although the recent declaration of support for the Conservatives from Rupert Murdoch may seem like little more than political posturing, you have rightly spotted that there is something more sinister brewing in the [...]

Dear Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang,
Every once in a while I come across a story that genuinely makes me think ‘What on earth is society coming to?’, and yours is another such story.  You have been charged with a criminal offence after taking part in what you regarded as a reasonable discussion about religion with guests at your [...]

From the BBC:
Police in Birmingham have arrested 33 people during a demonstration against Islamic fundamentalism and counter-protest by anti-fascists. The demonstration – by groups calling themselves the English and Welsh Defence League and Casuals United – was made up of football fans, said police. The counter-protest was organised by campaign group Unite Against Fascism, West [...]

Dear BBC,
Your anti-fascist agenda is thinly veiled these days and your delight at the jail sentences handed out to two rather unsavoury individuals yesterday was obvious enough.  What you failed to realise, however, was that these jail terms demonstrated how seriously the free speech of British citizens is now being curbed.
In a landmark case, neo-Nazis [...]

Dear Darryn Walker,
Although it didn’t cause much of a ripple in the mainstream media, the end of your court case this week concluded a rather uncomfortable saga for bloggers around the country.  You were cleared of breaching the Obscene Publications Act with a story that you wrote about Girls Aloud on an internet site, which described in [...]

Dear Boris Johnson,
Now that you have entered your second year as London Mayor, your performance will come under even greater scrutiny.  However, it is your stance on free speech which merits as much attention as anything that you have achieved thus far as Mayor.  As you rightly said in your Sunday Telegraph column, the idea [...]

“It says more about them than it says about me.”
- Michael Savage, a US radio talk show host, reacting to the government’s decision to ban him from entering the UK.  He told his radio audience that he was intending to sue Jacqui Smith, who he described as the “lunatic … Home Secretary of England”.  ”To link [...]

Dear Chris Huhne,
Through your stance on many civil liberties, one might be lured into thinking that the Liberal Democrats are precisely that – liberal.  For all your talk, however, your actions are showing an increasingly large divide between liberty and the Liberal Democrats.  Sure, you oppose ID cards and a few other liberty-infringeing policies from [...]

Dear libertarians,
Regular readers of my blog will know that once in a while I stumble across a story which I think strikes at the heart of libertarian values.  Like many other Conservatives (big and small ‘c’) I want the state to play a much smaller role in our lives than it does now, but I [...]

 Dear Rowan Atkinson,
It must be a lonely fight.  Without the help of MPs, the media or any other group of influential people, it is left to the likes of you to stand up for freedom of speech.  You have fought in the past, albeit unsuccessfully, against new laws banning incitement of religious hatred that were as [...]

Dear Inayat Bunglawala,
It was good to hear you, as a representative of the Muslim Council of Britain, come out against the disgusting protests from Muslims in Luton during the homecoming parade for the Royal Anglians.  When Muslims cross the line, condemnation from groups that supposedly represent them is often notable by its absence.  Nevertheless, I think you’ve been [...]

So, let me just clarify something – we want hateful, anti-British Muslims to stay IN this country, but we want to keep people like Geert Wilders OUT ?
I would now like to repeat the reasons offered by the Home Office as to why Geert Wilders was kept out, but this time substitute out any reference to [...]

“a lesion on the forehead of history”
- how Dr Ibrahim Moussawi, a spokesman for the Lebanese-based militant group Hizbollah, has allegedly described Jews. Campaigners from the Centre for Social Cohesion have pledged to seek an arrest warrant for Dr Moussawi, who is due to visit Britain this March.  The think-tank said the Home Office would be “beyond [...]

Dear Alan Campbell,
As a Home Office minister, I’m sure Jacqui Smith takes all the high profile cases and leaves you with the issues that she isn’t particularly interested in.  I appreciate that regulating the internet is a horribly messy situation and doesn’t offer much in the way of glitz and glamour, but don’t think for [...]

“We have profound commitment to freedom of speech”.
- David Miliband, commenting on Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP who made the controversial ‘Fitna’ film about Islam, being turned away at Heathrow

Dear Geert Wilders,
What a sad day.  In amongst the predictions of a global meltdown and government’s fighting for their survival, it strikes me as a strange time to attack you – but attack you the Dutch government has.  Your film entitled Fitna (which can be viewed HERE) caused quite a stir in political and religious [...]

Dear Andy Burnham
Being Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport is generally thought of as the easiest cabinet position seeing as you can acquire high-level experience without actually doing anything.  You have clearly decided to ignore your predecessors’ lead by starting a massive argument about web censorship.   Your suggestion that websites could [...]

Dear Internet Watch Foundation (IWF),
As the organisation that filters out websites for internet users in the UK, you were never likely to escape controversy for long.  Your ruling that the Scorpion’s 1976 album called ‘Virgin Killers’ may have an illegal front cover and you subsequently blocking the Wikipedia website that contains the album cover has caused [...]