Free speech in the United Kingdom has long been in free fall, with expanding criminalization and regulation of speech. Much of this effort is carried out to combat disinformation or radicalism. The subjectivity of such “Prevent” standards is evident in a new media report that officers are being trained to look for “cultural nationalism,” including those people who are concerned that Western culture is under threat from mass migration. Such concerns are now viewed as indicative of “right-wing terrorist ideology.”
Europe, like the United States, is showing a surge in political support for politicians seeking to limit and reverse mass immigration into their countries. That includes Great Britain.
The material is part of an online training course for British hospitals, schools, universities, and other public institutions that are expected to identify and report extremists to the government.
The training would subject a large number of British citizens to potential investigation as right-wing extremists. In 2023, a government report by William Shawcross concluded “populist conservative voices who have nothing to do with violent extremism” are often identified by investigators even though the overwhelming number of attacks committed in the UK were “Islamist in nature.”
There have also been warnings that by classifying “cultural nationalism” as an indication of extremism, the anti-terror scheme could be used to stifle public debate.
A Home Office spokesman insisted, however, that “Prevent is not about restricting debate or free speech, but about protecting those susceptible to radicalisation.”
That is a rationale already used in the UK to arrest those with dangerous thoughts or viewpoints.
For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests, including in my book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.
A man was convicted of sending a tweet while drunk, referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for wearing an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”
Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement:
“I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”
Lodder lambasted Brock for holding Nazi and other hateful values:
“[i]t is clear that you are a right-wing extremist, your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography which you have studied and appeared to share with others…”
Recently, the UK effectively resumed blasphemy prosecutions and previously arrested a woman for silently praying to herself near an abortion clinic.
The training captures the potential chilling effect on speech where any publicly stated concerns over immigration and Western Civilization could lead to your being reported to the police. It reflects the cavalier approach to such speech regulations in not just the UK but throughout Europe. However, this European model is being promoted by many in the United States, including some who are calling on the European Union to challenge the United States over the regulation of speech.
President Lincoln was a great president.
Precedent is an established rule or authority.
President Lincoln imposed martial law.
President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus.
President Trump must soon impose martial law and suspend habeas corpus—as did Lincoln—to suppress the coordinated rebellion of the juristocracy, sanctuary cities, doxers, ICE rioters et al., and those who would incite the same, such as “8647.”
Yawn. Yet he has done NONE of that, try again loser
Russia will flatten post Christian Britain. Just wait! The Brit population is unarmed. They can’t overthrow their tyrants. They are all doomed!
Liberty ends where the metric system begins.
There are only 3 countries in the world that do not use the metric system
United States
Liberia
Myanmar
You are known by the company you keep.
We went to the moon….
when I was a lad, Britain was a free country. I’m old
Yes, and in educated developed nations endangered cultures are known and protected. The UK culture is endangered and it may be too late as are the cultures in the EU. They have been invaded by a non native species. It’s science and alright to say it. It’s science.
Yes, the UK must protect its culture for themselves and their posterity as well as for the world. So too the American culture of the United States. So it is..
“ That is a rationale already used in the UK to arrest those with dangerous thoughts or viewpoints.”
We use it too. We punish those who express dangerous thoughts and viewpoints. Khalil, Ozturk, university students, etc. Turley lives in his own bubble. We punish under the pretext of “civility rules” Its speech and Turley conveniently ignored it.
Khalil lied on his visa application. That alone is justification for revoking his visa and facilitating deportation, according to U.S. law.
He wasn’t on a visa. He had a green card which means his visa was already vetted.
He was arrested for exercising his free speech rights. Turley is critical of the UK doing the same thing. He’s quite the hypocrite.
“He wasn’t on a visa. He had a green card which means his visa was already vetted.”
@George Svelaz: The visa contained lies. That lie was part of the chain that led to the green card. He never received citizenship. And in law, the weakest link in the chain breaks the whole chain. That’s the end of the matter. On that basis alone, he can be sent home. As for your repetitive comments, you’re either ignorant or a liar. In your case, it’s both.
What lies? Even you can’t prove that the government is telling the truth AFTER granting him a green card.
You’re just assuming things without understanding what you’re trying to argue.
George, you are as dumb as a doorknob. A non-citizen doesn’t have a right to enter the country; it’s a privilege granted by the government and can be removed by the government. His ability to remain is conditional. Khalil flunked and can be removed. He’s a nasty dude, but you seem to like the fact that rapists, wife-beaters, murderers, and thieves were let in. I left out pedophiles; everyone already knows your affinity toward them.
No George, we evict foreigners that lied about the reason they wanted to come here. If you said you want so study here and then you prevent Jewish students from studying here you are tossed. If you say you want to study here because you admire our country and then you campaign for the end of America and the west you are tossed.
Equating a citizen of GB being critical of their immigration policies and getting thrown in jail with a foreigner being forced to go back to their HOME COUNTRY for rabble rousing in their host country is weak minded, juvenile and just partisan junk.
He didn’t lie. He’s accused of not mentioning that a relative may have had an association with Hamas. You can’t know to be telling everything you are supposed to mention.
“ If you say you want to study here because you admire our country and then you campaign for the end of America and the west you are tossed.”
He didn’t campaign for the end of America. He was critical of US policies and critical of Israel. His opinions and views are not a crime. He’s protected by the 1st amendment like everyone else. The Trump administration arrested him because it didn’t like what he was saying. They still don’t have any charges against him.
Ozturk was just released because the government had zero proof she committed a crime. She was arrested and they wanted to deport her because she co-wrote an op-ed critical of Israel. Its also protected speech. Turley conveniently ignores our own government’s attacks on free speech. He’s a hypocrite.
“No George, we evict foreigners that lied about the reason they wanted to come here”
Are you advocating that Elon Musk b e deported? He lied on his Visa application before he became a citizen.
Hullbobby,
“If you said you want so study here and then you prevent Jewish students from studying here you are tossed. ”
He didn’t prevent Jewish students from studying. How did he do that? You have evidence that he personally did that? Other students may have done that, but he sure didn’t.
“If you say you want to study here because you admire our country and then you campaign for the end of America and the west you are tossed.”
When did he campaign for the end of America? Did he say it personally? No.
He can be critical of the government, Israel, and organize a peaceful protest. So what did he do that was criminal or illegal?
The UK is not punishing immigrants for their violent rhetoric.
It is punishing citizens for advocating for western values.
No nation is obligated to accept immigrants or visitors who wish to destroy that nations values.
Khalil BTW was a criminal. He attempted to extort columbia using violence.
“Khalil BTW was a criminal. He attempted to extort columbia using violence.”
Was? You have zero evidence for that claim. Your assumption is not a fact. Negotiating a peaceful resolution to the stand off between the university and the protesters is not a crime. Resorting to falsehoods because you cannot pin anything on him and neither can the government.
Its amusing how you try to define negotiation as extortion so you have a reason to accuse him of a crime. Again, you have absolutely no evidence that your claim is even remotely true.
I guess the British didn’t learn their lesson in 1776.
The world is sliding very quickly down a very dangerous, slippery slope. If we get to far down, there won’t be any coming back. I hope we are NOT there yet, though we are getting dangerously close.
Would be happening here with Kamala
@Anonymous
Yup. 👍🏼 As it will with literally any other modern dem candidate if we are foolish enough to give them power.
State Censorship and Citizen Spies
“Russia relapses into dark era of Soviet paranoia as citizens spy on each other over Ukraine”
“In the last day of January, a woman took her son to see paediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova at Polyclinic No.140 in northwest Moscow. The boy, aged seven, had a problem with one of his eyes.
The conversation that the boy’s mother alleged took place during an 18-minute encounter at the clinic would change both women’s lives and land the 68-year-old doctor in prison.
The case hinged on a denunciation – part of a rising trend of Russians informing on fellow citizens for their views on the war in Ukraine and other alleged political crimes.” (https://tell.co.ke/russia-slips-back-into-dark-era-of-soviet-paranoia-as-russians-start-spying-on-each-other-over-ukraine/)
Oops. Did I mix the countries?
And who, now, is the “Putin stooge?”
They’re at open war with 100s of thousands dying and dead. A note , Sam.
The US is in pre-war circumstances.
Led by totalitarian regimes, including the EU, the global trajectory of freedom of speech to freedom of belief to freedom of thought — is not encouraging. Indeed, a better descriptor would be: dark and ominous.
It seems like the Martians gave world leaders a choice between extermination or insanity and nobody told us.
Clever Martians. We chose insanity, and now it appears we’ll exterminate ourselves.
I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to Martians than to world leaders*
* borrowed from William F. Buckley’s quote “I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”
Elon Musk is a Martian who wants to return to the state of rationality and reason which prevails there instead of remaining here where religion and delusions prevail.
There are utterly totalitarian authoritarian religions with leaders who’ve inherited their religious office as head of religion and government by DNA from its founder known as cults. They’re primitive and maximally punishing requiring control of its subject mind , body and soul in this life and the next.
There are other reasonable religions who teach fundamental morality.
These two types are not the same, Thornton.
True
Yes, I thought that long ago. It saves them work and some gather information about group responses to stimuli. Bombs are so destructive on the otherhand killing other creatures.
Is this a surprise? The actions of parliament, legal authorities, and courts in the UK led to the American Revolution as much as anything else at the time. The whole concept of the U.S Constitution was to counter the excesses of the UK Government, constrain the power of government , and provide side rails for a popular, elected government that could still function in a relatively “efficient” manner.
The Uk has had its ups and downs over the centuries as to freedom of speech and the people but they ceased being “us” in 1776. We share a common language and some culture but we ceased being close to the same long ago.
We the People remains the ultimate authority in the US, but in the UK it is still Parliament. Their courts said as much when they declared that Parliament had to pass a law to separate from the EU, because it was the supreme authority and not the people who had ratified Brexit by plebescite.
The UK is far more European than ever before. Virtually anything right of center in Europe is “Far Right”.
Strange how the European mindset has seeped into our culture where Biden and his handlers thought school boards and radical Catholics, and conservatives were existential threats to the US.
It’s a shame. I consider myself a bit of an Anglophile. I have been there multiple times. Until this suicidal insanity is stopped, I will never return.
I agree with guyventer – the globalists are the worst fascists our world has ever seen. They are ultra elite and usually lifelong Marxists. Nothing that is happening now on the modern left is happenstance – what was spreading in the mid 20th century is simply culminating now, and it is entirely incompatible with a free, Constitutional Republic.
I suspect Western Europe is largely lost, and the DNC is never going to be reflective of our principles ever again. Shutting down NGOs and extricating ourselves from globalist organizations is critical. A new American party would be most welcome.
Don’t write off the UK too soon. You’re seeing the news of only the dregs of the UK. The meaning of-let the dead bury the dead.
Today in America, government officials creating new definitions…one could say newspeak, as orwell predicted…also, consider the government redefining the word invasion.
. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.), along with his fellow Colorado Republicans, introduced a three-page resolution denouncing the attack, which is scheduled to be voted on this week.
The measure labels “Free Palestine” an “antisemitic slogan that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and the Jewish people.”
The US government has not redefined the word invasion. The historical use of the word includes the uncontrollled movement of people in ways that disrupt the country they are invading. Often invasions by masses of people are followed by military invasions.
I am a proponent of immigration – even large scale immigration . But almost no one is an advocate for the lawless destructive nonsense that occurred under Biden and to a lessor extent Obama.
We are a nation of laws and we will collapse slowly when govenrment itself undermines the laws.
The FIRST thing we must do regarding immigration is FOLLOW the law.
The next is to have the national discussion necescary to decide what changes we wish to make to our immigration law.
1. Zero immigration from 3rd worlds including prehistoric nations such as found in the middle east excepting Israel.
John say tries to redefine the word “ invasion” Invasion as defined by the acts invoked by Trump mean military invasion. Not what John Say would prefer.
What effect does this measure have ?
Like it or not a country even the US can make choices regarding who may enter the country based on the political positions they advocate.
The palestinian situation is a mess, but it will end. It ends when other arab nations decide that a good relationship with Israel is in their interests, and when they uit funind the Palestinians and they are expected to support themselves.
I have no problems with what Palestinians protesters SAY.
It is what they DO that matters.
Nazi’s marching through Skokie was SAYING all kinds of antisemetic things – with the protextion of the US government.
It was antisemetic, it was also protected free speech.
The first amendment does not care whether speech is antisemetic, or sexist, or racist, or homophobic, or anti-trans.
It is still permissible.
It is when that speech turns to acts that it becomes a crime.
John, your understanding of the Levant is solid, and I think you’d really appreciate Let the Stones Speak. It’s a short, powerful book that brings history alive right as it’s being uncovered. The ongoing dig at the City of David shows Israel’s unbroken connection to Jerusalem, layer by layer.
When I visited in the 1990s, it was little more than a rugged hillside. Today, the excavation reveals a living record: from King David to modern Israel. It’s not political; it’s physical evidence. And that’s why it’s under attack. Groups like the Muslim Brotherhood fear truth carved in stone more than any army. They push lies because they know what these discoveries mean.
What makes the book even stronger is its remarkable set of references, including legal and historical sources that clarify the difference between occupation and sovereignty. It’s not just archaeology—it’s a case study in truth.
Highly recommended. You’ll find it both grounding and urgent. This book is also for people who enjoy history, such as those like Kansas, Young, and those with strong religious beliefs, like Estovir, GEB and Dinanna. I can’t forget Diogenes, the historian, and Upstate, the farmer. Many more people would also enjoy the book.
You doubted it? 😂
Meyer’s, I thought of you this morning while praying the Office of the Readings, Liturgy of the Hours, my morning ritual. The first reading from the OOR you will recognize. I prayed for you, Israel and all of Judaism.
Pax
The beginning of the book of Joshua 1:1-18
Joshua, called by God, encourages the tribes to unity
After Moses, the servant of the Lord, had died, the Lord said to Moses’ aide Joshua, son of Nun: “My servant Moses is dead. So prepare to cross the Jordan here, with all the people into the land I will give the Israelites. As I promised Moses, I will deliver to you every place where you set foot. Your domain is to be all the land of the Hittites, from the desert and from Lebanon east to the great river Euphrates and west to the Great Sea. No one can withstand you while you live. I will be with you as I was with Moses: I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be firm and steadfast, so that you may give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers I would give them. Above all, be firm and steadfast, taking care to observe the entire law which my servant Moses enjoined on you. Do not swerve from it either to the right or to the left, that you may succeed wherever you go. Keep this book of the law on your lips. Recite it by day and by night, that you may observe carefully all that is written in it; then you will successfully attain your goal. I command you: be firm and steadfast! Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go.”
So Joshua commanded the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and instruct the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for three days from now you shall cross the Jordan here, to march in and take possession of the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you.'”
Joshua reminded the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh: “Remember what Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you when he said, ‘The Lord, your God, will permit you to settle in this land.’ Your wives, your children, and your livestock shall remain in the land Moses gave you here beyond the Jordan. But all the warriors among you must cross over armed ahead of your kinsmen and you must help them until the Lord has settled your kinsmen, and they like you possess the land which the Lord, your God, is giving them. Afterward you may return and occupy your own land, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, has given you east of the Jordan.”
“We will do all you have commanded us,” they answered Joshua, “and we will go wherever you send us. We will obey you as completely as we obeyed Moses. But may the Lord, your God, be with you as he was with Moses. If anyone rebels against your orders and does not obey every command you give him, he shall be put to death. But be firm and steadfast.”
http://www.liturgies.net/Liturgies/Catholic/loh/week10mondayor.htm
Thank you, Estovir, that means a lot. When this portion of Joshua is read on Simchat Torah, I will think of you and pray. When Israel is in pain, I feel it too. Joshua represents a time of transition, where leadership and responsibility are essential. You recognize that more than most. The book I mentioned reflects a similar moment when King David relocated his capital from Hebron to the City of David, further uniting the people in the heart of what is today known as Israel.
If you’ve never been, go to Jerusalem, then walk out the Dung Gate and visit the City of David. Islamists hate that excavation because they want to erase the truth that the Hebrew homeland is in Israel, and from it came the beginning of Christianity. The Islamist movement wants that history blotted out, leaving only their own. That’s why they attack everything Jewish.
Pax.
Amen!
John Say, you aren’t wrong. Larry Flynt is the free press standard. He’s a true patriot for freedom of the press. There should be statues of these patriots, constitutionality of Robert Mapplethorpe!
I would want that our “Right Wing Terrorist” military just withdraw our terrible selves from NATO and let these braindead progressives defend themselves without our evil presence in Europe.
I used to think the same until I realized that withdrawing from NATO would mean that the next war “in Europe” would more likely than not be fought on our shores. It would be better to fight that war on European soil and, after we win, we should keep the European territory as part of the United States. We shouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Europeans and the British are proving that they are incapable of governing and protecting themselves.
A quibble I have with you Vincente is “we shouldn’t make the same mistake twice”. You see we already made it twice, once in 1918 and once in 1945.
If they are inapable of governing themselves – Why would we want to commit to governing them by force ?
Europe can solve its own problems, and though that is proceeding slowly – it likley will.
I would rather chance a ffutile invasion of our homeland than to keep pumping money into an area that hates us more and more with each passing day. I would rather let Europe be hoisted on its own petard.
Britain is committing suicide and the monarchy will not last much longer. A country cannot bring in a horde of people who will never assimilate and will take over the country and the govt. Jihad is a duty of all Islamists. One thing Islam does not need is a king.
This is the same pattern followed by most empires that open their culture and government to unassimilated types within the empire – just ask the ancient Romans, Persians, and Alexander’s empires. They all fell to multiculturalism. We are not far behind thanks to prog dems and spineless rinos.
Their kings are called grand ayotollahs and imams…theocratic
I think that the Britain of Churchill and Thatcher, of Lionheart, Magna Carta and Dunkirk, of Hastings and Henry V at Agincourt is gone. The replacement will not be our friend
This sums up the Brits and those who believe in their own freedom to speak out while denying any opposing views to be heard.
Globalist Fascists of today are WORSE than German Fascists of the 1930’s.
At least the German’s Loved Germany…today’s leftist/democrat/globalist…truly HATE THEMSELVES!