Controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders has been banned from coming to the UK. (Read the story here.) He has made a film critical of Islam, which he proposes to show at a meeting in the House of Lords, but the Home Secretary has denied him entry to this country. His views on Islam and the Koran are somewhat provocative and the government thinks that his presence would not be conducive to the public good.
I don’t know enough about Geert Wilders to be able to judge whether he should have been banned (although his film is apparently available on the internet for all the complaints about the denial of free speech – anyone can see it who wants to) but it is interesting to note that he can be banned. For all the complaints from the anti-Europeans that membership of the EU has hollowed out our political system and abolished our borders, clearly things are not quite so far gone as they claim.