Hate speech: Define ‘interest of public policy’

The government of a free and democratic country has the right and responsibility to refuse entry to people whose presence is deemed unquestionably to be a threat to public order; visitors, for example who pose a problem not because they offer merely unfashionable or controversial political or religious arguments but because they preach violence and hate.

That power under the 1999 Immigration Act has been used for the first time by Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan to keep an Arizona pastor, Steven Anderson, out of the country. Mr Anderson says he prays for the death of Barack Obama and has advocated the murder of gay people.