Island of Strangers
On sale
11th June 2026
Price: £24.99
‘Few people have a better understanding of how endangered free speech has become in these islands than Ben Jones. This urgent cry for its restoration is a must read’ Toby Young
‘To call Island of Strangers “unflinching” is to understate its tenacity and courage. It is forthright – territorial – yet it maintains a distinctive English politeness that will force its critics to address its argument: this is no polemic, but it is an unmistakable act of defiance’ The Critic
BRITAIN IS BEING TRANSFORMED. IT IS UNFREE. AND IT IS GETTING WORSE.
As mass migration reshapes Britain’s population, an increasingly authoritarian state attempts to manage the resulting hyper-diversity by suppressing freedom of speech. We see this in two-tier policing, in attempts to criminalise blasphemy against Islam, and even in the private sector where thousands have lost their jobs or have been punished for expressing their beliefs.
In Island of Strangers, Ben Jones – a director of the Free Speech Union – shows how multiculturalism came just as Britain was losing its sense of itself, as Christianity declined, and how its elite embraced a creed of ‘diversityism’. Grounded in a long view of Britain’s history, this book gets to the fundamental causes of why Keir Starmer’s UK feels so unfree.
The free speech crisis isn’t just a passing problem. Silencing dissent is now built into how the fractured UK is governed. Different identity groups are increasingly locked in competition to protect their sacred ideas. The most potent challenge to Britain’s tradition of free speech comes from within Islam. This book is unafraid to grapple with these truths.
Increasingly it seems impossible even to define who ‘we’ are, much less what we believe or what unites us. Do we really have more in common than that which divides us? Increasingly it feels like we don’t. Taking Keir Starmer’s infamous line, this book argues that Britain has been transformed into ‘an island of strangers’.
More Praise for Island of Strangers
‘Jones argues that high immigration levels, our deference to radical Islam and the demise of the West’s Christian identity have left us with a Britain that doesn’t know itself. Jones’s view of free speech is tougher than many more-well-known commentators and columnists’ Ella Whelan, The Telegraph
‘Ben Jones does not pull his punches here. If you want the unvarnished truth of what’s happening to our country, this is the book to read’ Rafe Heydel-Mankoo, New Culture Forum
‘This is a courageous book, for its author gives voice to the sentiments so many of us share but think twice before expressing in public. Its arguments are developed with force and clarity, and in lucid prose that is a pleasure to read’ Alistair Miller, The Salisbury Review
‘To call Island of Strangers “unflinching” is to understate its tenacity and courage. It is forthright – territorial – yet it maintains a distinctive English politeness that will force its critics to address its argument: this is no polemic, but it is an unmistakable act of defiance’ The Critic
BRITAIN IS BEING TRANSFORMED. IT IS UNFREE. AND IT IS GETTING WORSE.
As mass migration reshapes Britain’s population, an increasingly authoritarian state attempts to manage the resulting hyper-diversity by suppressing freedom of speech. We see this in two-tier policing, in attempts to criminalise blasphemy against Islam, and even in the private sector where thousands have lost their jobs or have been punished for expressing their beliefs.
In Island of Strangers, Ben Jones – a director of the Free Speech Union – shows how multiculturalism came just as Britain was losing its sense of itself, as Christianity declined, and how its elite embraced a creed of ‘diversityism’. Grounded in a long view of Britain’s history, this book gets to the fundamental causes of why Keir Starmer’s UK feels so unfree.
The free speech crisis isn’t just a passing problem. Silencing dissent is now built into how the fractured UK is governed. Different identity groups are increasingly locked in competition to protect their sacred ideas. The most potent challenge to Britain’s tradition of free speech comes from within Islam. This book is unafraid to grapple with these truths.
Increasingly it seems impossible even to define who ‘we’ are, much less what we believe or what unites us. Do we really have more in common than that which divides us? Increasingly it feels like we don’t. Taking Keir Starmer’s infamous line, this book argues that Britain has been transformed into ‘an island of strangers’.
More Praise for Island of Strangers
‘Jones argues that high immigration levels, our deference to radical Islam and the demise of the West’s Christian identity have left us with a Britain that doesn’t know itself. Jones’s view of free speech is tougher than many more-well-known commentators and columnists’ Ella Whelan, The Telegraph
‘Ben Jones does not pull his punches here. If you want the unvarnished truth of what’s happening to our country, this is the book to read’ Rafe Heydel-Mankoo, New Culture Forum
‘This is a courageous book, for its author gives voice to the sentiments so many of us share but think twice before expressing in public. Its arguments are developed with force and clarity, and in lucid prose that is a pleasure to read’ Alistair Miller, The Salisbury Review