If a topic provokes spirited debate at our weekly editorial meeting, it’s usually a good sign that it is worth writing about. This week’s cover in Britain and Europe about whether Europe has a free-speech problem fits into that category. Europeans were horrified when J.D. Vance, America’s vice-president, accused Europe of failing to protect free speech. Mr Vance is clearly a hypocrite, as the Trump administration is an energetic foe of speech it dislikes, whether critical media or students with dissenting views. 

But does he have a point about Europe? My colleagues have looked carefully at the evidence in Britain and the European Union. And the answer is yes. Our leader argues that Europe has gone too far in curbing free speech. By far the worst offender is Hungary (a country that Mr Vance notably does not call out), where the MAGA-friendly government has crushed or co-opted most independent news outlets. Other striking offenders include Germany and Britain. 

And things may get worse. The aim of hate-speech laws, which are ubiquitous in Europe, is to promote social harmony. But suppressing speech with the threat of prosecution appears to foster division. When the law forbids giving offence, it also creates an incentive for people to claim to be offended, and to use the police to silence a critic or settle a score. A “taboo ratchet” can follow. Because this point is made stridently by the populist right, many European liberals have grown queasy about defending free speech. This is foolish: believing in free speech means defending speech you don’t like. Noisy disagreement is better than enforced silence.

Our cover elsewhere examines how crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset. It has taken on a new role in American public life, not least in the Oval Office: crypto is now possibly the largest single source of wealth for President Donald Trump and his family. This is ironic, given its utopian, anti-authoritarian origins. All this is happening as crypto is being taken more seriously by mainstream financial firms. But the industry’s reputation and fate are now tied to the ups and downs of its political benefactor. Crypto has been good to the Trumps and their allies. But ultimately the benefits of this arrangement will flow only one way.