“I’ve been banned for criticising Israel. Are we free any more?” Cenk Uygur’s question, posed to his followers on X this week, has some merit(优点；价值). Mr Uygur and Hasan Piker, two controversial American left-wing influencers, were both blocked by the British government from entering the country to speak at the SXSW festival in London and at Oxford University. The decision is shabby(卑劣的；破旧的) behaviour for a country that sees itself as the birthplace of free speech, one of the fundamental pillars of liberal democracy. That people should be able to say and think what they want is not just a right for citizens; it is a cultural norm that is erode(侵蚀；削弱)d if speakers from abroad are regularly turned away at the border.
“我因为批评以色列被禁了。我们还有自由吗？”坎克·于古尔本周在X上向他的粉丝提出的这个问题有一定道理。于古尔和哈桑·皮克尔是两位有争议的美国左翼网红，两人均被英国政府阻止入境，无法在伦敦的SXSW音乐节和牛津大学发表演讲。对于一个视自己为言论自由发源地——自由民主的基本支柱之一——的国家来说，这一决定是卑劣的行为。人们能够自由表达和思考，不仅是公民的权利，更是一种文化规范；如果经常在边境拒绝外国演讲者入境，这种规范就会受到侵蚀。
Messrs Piker and Uygur were blocked because Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, judged that their presence in the country “may not be conducive to the public good(有利于公共利益)”. This extraordinarily vague(模糊的；含糊的) standard is increasingly being used, it appears, to ban high-profile foreigners whose views the government does not welcome. In April this rationale was deployed to stop Kanye West—a rapper with a history of unhinged(精神失常的；疯狂的) Nazi ramblings, for which he has since apologised—from performing at a music festival. In May it was cited as justification for blocking several far-righters from attending and speaking at a rally organised by Tommy Robinson, a white-nationalist rabble-rouser(煽动群众者), in London.
皮克尔和于古尔被禁，是因为内政大臣莎巴娜·马哈茂德判定他们在英国“可能不利于公共利益”。这个极其模糊的标准正越来越多地被用来禁止政府不欢迎的高调外国人。今年4月，这一理由被用来阻止坎耶·韦斯特——一位有过疯狂纳粹言论、后来为此道歉的说唱歌手——在音乐节上表演。5月，它被引用为阻止几名极右翼分子参加汤米·罗宾逊——一名白人种族主义煽动者——在伦敦组织的集会上发言的正当理由。
All this is a worryingly aggressive application of the discretionary(自由裁量的) power afforded to the home secretary. Such power should be used very sparingly(节俭地；谨慎地). Direct and deliberate incitement(煽动；鼓动) to violence is unlawful; it may well be right to exclude someone with a history of such behaviour. Hurtful, disturbing or disgusting views—some of which have been on display this week in the furore(轰动；愤怒) over the police’s response to a fatal attack on Henry Nowak, a student—do not meet that threshold.
这一切都是对内政大臣所获自由裁量权的一种令人担忧的激进应用。这种权力应该极其谨慎地使用。直接且蓄意地煽动暴力是非法的；排除有此类行为历史的人很可能是正确的。但伤人的、令人不安的或令人反感的观点——其中一些本周在警方对一名学生亨利·诺瓦克遭致命袭击的回应所引发的争议中有所展现——并不构成那个门槛。
Gag reflex
封口反射