Sir Tom Stoppard was one of the many writers to salute Daniel Johnson on standing down as editor of Standpoint, the monthly magazine he created ten years ago to boldly celebrate and defend Western civilisation.

SIR TOM STOPPARD was one of the many writers to salute Daniel Johnson on standing down as editor of Standpoint, the monthly magazine he created ten years ago to boldly celebrate and defend Western civilisation. “Nobody else but Daniel could have come up with the idea of Standpoint,” said Stoppard. “And nobody else would have done it.” Johnson was touched. “I’m sure he meant it as a compliment, but there’s a nicely Stoppardian ambiguity about his words. I shall treasure them all the more.”

In the run-up to Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain in 2010, the eminent QC Geoffrey Robertson attempted to have him arrested for complicity in child abuse. Johnson commissioned a piece defending the Pope by John Paul II’s biographer George Weigel. When Benedict addressed MPs in Westminster Hall, Johnson slipped a copy to one of his aides; Weigel was told later that the Holy Father was deeply grateful. This did not deter Geoffrey from offering his draft British Bill of Rights to Standpoint. “I was happy to take it” Johnson told us. “Western civilisation should be capacious enough for pontiffs and pontificators alike.”

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