Last week on Question Time the author Christopher Hitchens came very close to losing his cool when the idiotic Shirley Williams described the knighting of Salman Rushdie as "a mistake". It was, as Hitchens remarked, a contemptible thing to say.

However given the weird deference we now extend to people of faith censorious nonsense such as Shirley's is finding an ever more enthusiastic audience. The Marxist and Professor Emeritus of Government at the University of Manchester, Norman Geras, has been a life-long defender of free expression, and his blog is essential reading for anyone who cares to defend the arts against attacks from woolly-headed liberals and semi-literate clerics. You can read what he has to say about Hitchens, Williams and the Rushdie affair here.