Those in today’s world who seek to exercise power over us – the woke mob, “human rights” lawyers, pressure groups, bureaucrats, politicians, regulators, big tech companies, HR departments, the post-liberal intelligentsia, the know-it-alls, the propagandists – are fully aware that free speech is their very own kryptonite. They dread scrutiny, and fear being held to account.

Their strategy to combat open and fearless expression can vary. Speech can be regulated or constrained by laws, directives or official guidance, as with ever-expanding privacy case law or “non-crime hate incidents”; bullying, shunning and cancelling dissidents can also work well, forging a toxic culture of self-censorship.

There is no better way to stamp out dissent than to cite a “speech code”, or claim that “the science” isn’t being followed, or to dismiss somebody’s opinion as a “conspiracy theory” (even when it is not) or to warn that somebody’s feelings are being hurt.

Several of the greatest global scandals of recent years could have been avoided had speech been freer. In Britain and Europe, cancel culture was deployed against anybody who questioned the scale and impact of mass migration, with sceptics smeared as racists. The Hunter Biden scandal was covered up, including by Facebook, which censored a New York Post story ahead of the 2020 elections. It became impossible to discuss the likelihood that Covid originated from an accidental lab leak in Wuhan; posts or articles would be removed from social media or search engines, and authors hounded as xenophobes.