The murder of British conservative icon Ann Widdecombe was barely reported when the usual suspects gathered to use her death to call for even greater censorship in the United Kingdom. The move follows Rahm Emanuel’s principle that you “never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” We saw similar moves after the killing of free speech advocates, including the Charlie Hebdo massacre. For some of the anti-free speech figures on the left, there must be a quiet sense of satisfaction to use the murder of Widdecombe, long a critic of censorship and speech regulations, as an excuse for even greater crackdowns on social media and the Internet.
Widdecombe, 78, a former Conservative minister and Reform UK spokeswoman, was found dead at her home in Devon with serious and brutal injuries. A 28-year-old man, Joshua Kerry, was arrested in connection with the murder.
Lucy Maria Powell, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, immediately seemed to call for greater censorship and speech regulation after paying tribute to Widdecombe, stating we must “tackle … online algorithms and business models”.
Even former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith joined the reflexive blame game on free speech:
“We need to reiterate, and the government and the home secretary needs to specify, to all those social media companies they must do something to close down on the visceral, violent language that some people use, attacking personally – as they did over her murder – which has shocked me, to make sure we get on top of that because that is the root of violence and death.”
It is all too familiar. I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom for years, 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 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.”Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. A man in Yorkshire was arrested for merely posting a picture with a shotgun.
In the meantime, many were quick to spread the false account of the murder. Journalist Dan Hodges insisted soon after the murder that “Police again very clear. No suggestion Ann Widdecombe’s death terror related. Or that it is politically motivated. And that speculation on motive is unhelpful to their investigation.”
It was a targeted attack, one of a line of such attacks on conservative figures. After the murder of conservative MP David Amess, the same calls were made on the left for more speech curtailment. Notably, his killer, Ali Harbi Ali, was an Islamic extremist and radicalized in his insular and extreme religious associations.
One of those arrested after the murder was former Green Party candidate and transgender activist Heather Herbert. Herbert went public with a celebration of the murder, a disgusting display not unlike the many on the left in the United States who celebrated or rationalized the murder of Charlie Kirk. As many mourned the death of this consequential figure, Herbert publicly expressed satisfaction with the murder and hoped that Widdecombe died in “agony.”
Herbert is an example of a tragic percentage of the population made grotesque by an age of rage. However, despite my revulsion at the posting, I still believe that the celebration of the death should be protected speech in the United Kingdom as it would be in the United States. Herbert is a web developer at Aberdeen University.
The arbitrary aspect of such arrests is reflected in the fact that the police initially said that there was no criminality in such comments but then flipped after an outcry. The conservatives and libertarians in the UK should not undermine the legacy of Widdecombe by falling into the same censorship demands as the left. We have also seen some on the right in the United States yield to such impulses, despite Kirk’s legacy of fighting such speech regulation.
Once again Turley presumes to lecture another country. Well, we in the UK are not interested in his trite nonsense. Free speech is not an absolute, it is not some God-given right, and our laws are rightly interested in achieving a balance between individual rights and wider society rights. Oh, and once again, Turley trots out wholly irrelevant and wrong disinformation about “Kung Fu Fighting” and “Leprechauns”. People want to see Herbert prosecuted for being utterly vile. Now, be a good professor and write about, oh, I don’t know, your utterly corrupted US legal system? The idiocy of the Second Amendment? The idiocy of holding sacrosanct a constitution written two and a half centuries ago by slave-owning, racist, traitors? The idiocy of a country that elects a senile narcissistic megalomaniac as its President? Having a drunkard TV presenter running defence, oh, sorry, war, who wants to give troops testosterone injections to shrink their testicles?
No, rather than address the huge elephants in the US room, Turley just decides to go off on one about another country that he does not understand, just to appeal to his mouth-breathing MAGA acolytes.
“wider society rights” is commie speak.
Society is made up of individuals and if you protect their rights, then ‘wider society’ is included in all those protections each INDIVIDUALLY, not by groups of people some idiot tried to lump together. That’s called division. And you do not speak for all your countrymen, I’ve seen some of your chaos and it just makes me more patriotic. Go ahead and point at others faults so you don’t have to fix your own broken system that goes straight from kings oppressing you to commies oppressing you.
Our successful American off-ramp from your crappy anti-human system is the greatest thing to ever happen to humans. Once you’ve had a taste of true trademarked American freedom you would never think like a serf again. Stand up for yourself man! Look what you’re doing; here you are posting on a foreign website just to have your say!
Think about this, had not America wrested its freedom from King George, would you still be ruled by monarchs? If your system is so great, why’d you change it AFTER we made our better society over here?
“Once again Turley presumes to lecture another country.” “Now, be a good professor and write about, oh, I don’t know, your utterly corrupted US legal system? . . .”
Self-awareness is not your strong suit.
I am delighted to report that SpaceX stock continues its downward spiral to oblivion. At the close today SPCX stands at $115.26, down another 6.7%, and down 49% from the high.
On top of that, Tesla stock is tanking after hours after failing to meet Wall St. quarterly earnings estimates by 39%.
Elmo the Muskrat’s net worth now stands at $700 billion, down 52% in a little over a month, with a long way yet to fall.
Capitalism and the free markets are such wonderful things.
Winners are rewarded and losers are punished.
And ANON’S POSTS ARE WORTH ZERO!!!
Nobody gives a f—k about whether you’re delighted or not, moron.
AI Overview
It is impossible to know what SpaceX’s stock price will be in one year, as market prices change based on future business results and investor choices. Analyst 12-month forecasts range from a low of $62 to a high of $800, with an average target around $240.
It’s a good time to buy.
the founder of the firm that manages $30 billion in assets just told Fox Business on July 22, 2026, that the company “could become the most important company in history.” Not the decade. History. ARK is buying more instead of trimming.
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/cathie-wood-says-spacex-could-164023813.html
free speech
Cathie Woods and her Ark ETF are a total joke.
Morningstar, the independent financial analytic firm has described her as the greatest destroyer of wealth in the last 10 years for her shareholders, losing $14.3 billion with extremely poor decisions of buying high and selling low.
https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20260513224/cathie-woods-flagship-fund-is-largely-missing-out-on-a-booming-tech-fueled-bull-run
In 2022 her fund lost 67% of its value, and it has still not recovered. It is still down from its losses 4 years ago.
There have been massive outflows of capital from her ETF funds. The Fox report you cite says that she has $30 billion under management. THAT IS FALSE. At her peak she had $30 billion in assets under management, but she now has about $6.5 billion due to massive outflows and losses.
She aggressively bought SPCX at the IPO, and during its collapse, and currently carries paper losses of around $100 million, or 20% of what she paid for SPCX.
She is trying to “talk up the stock” with her utterly absurd statement that SpaceX will be the “greatest company in history”, hoping that she can stem her massive losses.
Cathie Woods is a loser. Always has been. Her recommendations are the kiss of death for any company and its stock.
IMPUDENT IMPERTINENCE AND IDIOCY AS A VIOLATION OF THE CIVILITY RULE.
BAN FOR LIFE!
Well wait a minute Anonamouse. I thought that you were in love with the green new deal because it supported the makers of electric cars. What happened to your opinion about how important electric cars are to stop global warming.
Once again you place your urinating member right into an electric outlet. It seems that you have never learned that Elon Musk is making it possible for even the citizens of the poorest countries to be able to communicate. You also forgot to think about the blind who are now being able to see again and the deaf who can now hear because of the research being paid for by the horrible Elon Musk. Shocked again.
think elon will be eating ramen like you tonight?
Buy low, sell high!!! America!!!
Snipes the blog’s ankle-biter:
“What difference does it make to you or any US citizen, you’re not a UK citizen right?”
Besides being a (daily) passive-aggressive question, note the deeper implication: Don’t learn from mistakes made by others. Ignore the disasters of the past (even if that past was yesterday). Blind yourself to the ideological causes of history’s train wrecks.
In other words: Cautionary tales be damned, says the ankle-biter — and our home-grown socialists.
AI Overview
Recent polling shows the U.S. war with Iran is deeply unpopular, with Washington Post-Ipsos Poll data finding 68% say it is not worth fighting.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“the people are nothing but a great beast…
I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”
– Alexander Hamilton
_________________________
“The true reason (says Blackstone) of requiring any qualification, with regard to property in voters, is to exclude such persons, as are in so mean a situation, that they are esteemed to have no will of their own.”
“If it were probable that every man would give his vote freely, and without influence of any kind, then, upon the true theory and genuine principles of liberty, every member of the community, however poor, should have a vote… But since that can hardly be expected, in persons of indigent fortunes, or such as are under the immediate dominion of others, all popular states have been obliged to establish certain qualifications, whereby, some who are suspected to have no will of their own, are excluded from voting; in order to set other individuals, whose wills may be supposed independent, more thoroughly upon a level with each other.”
– Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted, 1775
______________________________________________________
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy–to be followed by a dictatorship.”
– Unknown
WordPress Censorship Here
AI Overview
Recent polling shows the U.S. war with Iran is deeply unpopular, with Washington Post-Ipsos Poll data finding 68% say it is not worth fighting.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
America is not an ochlocracy; American fundamental law does not prescribe mob rule.
A 68% result of a poll of the incapable and poor is meaningless under the Constitution.
What you don’t understand is that the American government was established by the Constitution to preclude the “dictatorship of the majority,” or the “dictatorship of the poor.”
America was designed to be managed by citizens who are capable and citizens who thrive.
Government was and is protected by the restraints on mob rule prescribed by the Constitution, such as the Electoral College, indirect election of senators, state-controlled suffrage, and an appointed judiciary.
Voter eligibility criteria were to be implemented by states.
Turnout in 1789 was 11.6% by design, as turnout has been limited in democracies since inception in Greece in 508 B.C.
America was never intended to be a one-man, one-vote ochlocracy.
Adhering to the unsuccessful 68% is certain death for America.
Most politicians are focused on short-term issues that benefit them, not the longterm welfare of your family or the nation.
Regular citizens have way more integrity, ethics and morals than most politicians – so why censor?
“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
– President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
_________________________________________
You and your family are your business, certainly NOT the business of the Constitution or America.
Deleterious leeching, freeloading, and parasitism are the subject of the self-destructive Communist Manifesto, not the Constitution, and communism is absolutely unconstitutional.
The American Founders and Framers gave citizens the one and only thing they could: Freedom.
Go engage in that freedom and self-reliance, Karl.
Oh, and you should establish a massive charity for all the shirkers, goldbrickers, leeches, and parasites you have created.
Let us distinguish between moral fault and legal fault. The Left in the UK, although to a lesser extent than the American Left, demonizes fellow citizens who raise objections to illegal immigration. Demonizing a portion of the citizenry does create moral responsibility when nut cases decide to assassinate figures like Widdecombe or Kirk. We should not hesitate to assess blame.
It’s not “illegal immigration”; it’s invasion for the purposes of POPULATION REPLACEMENT in order to succeed in “fundamentally transforming the United States of America” and the Western and “Five Eyes” nations of the Anglosphere into a fully globalized MexAfricArabiaAsia.
It’s working very well in light of indoctrinated phantom “white guilt” and the complete ignorance, negligence, and dereliction of actual American leadership.
Isn’t “democracy” really the open secret of nations like the USA, England and civilized nations? Why would we censor what really makes western nations great?
In the USA, democracy provides over 100 million different unique vantage points to solve problems.
In despotic regimes literally a handful of wealthy guys, tries to foresee and solve problems for millions of citizens. Those government models never succeed longterm.
So the USA and England have millions of “problem solvers” that vote or exercise free speech on the internet. Politicians have millions of vantage points to help them do their jobs.
When some (not all) American and English leaders become totalitarian control freaks, those insecure leaders then try to censor and control all citizen speech – instead of following the lead of voters and citizens! When leaders become control freaks, they view anything outside their control as a bad thing. Maybe a new occupation is in order for that type of leader?
It’s a control thing. The enticement of the ultimate control is the same high felt by all serial killers when their deeds are done. Complete control brings on the desired dopamine. Addiction is not just caused by drugs administered from outside of the body but it also can be administered by the drugs created internally. Without the control the symptoms of withdrawal become more and more intense. In the end the child smashes its doll against the floor.
Democracy Is Not “Dictatorship of the Majority” AKA “Dictatorship of the Poor”
Democracy Is “Dictatorship of the Capable and the Accomplished”
_________________________________________________________________________
In 508 BC, Athenian democracy limited political franchise to free, adult male residents, which comprised an estimated 10% to 15% of the total population. The remaining majority of the population—including all women, enslaved individuals, and foreign residents (metics)—held no voting rights or political standing. To qualify for participation in the Assembly and governance, an individual had to be a free male of Athenian parentage who had completed mandatory military training. Consequently, the direct democratic mechanisms established by Cleisthenes were operated exclusively by this specific demographic minority.
– Gemini
Words worth repeating
great speech. JD Vance also referenced Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer in the interview Estovir posted with Bishop Barron.
God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
Is J.D. Vance making Americans or Indians?
I suspect that SOME of the most ugly, acerbic, and politically retaliatory commentary on this blog—might be coming from the UK, where they would not dare to express themselves in such manner?
According to Res Ipsa, the UK and Commonwealth nations ranked in three of the top five global viewers.
https://jonathanturley.org/2025/01/01/state-of-the-blog-the-record-year-of-2024-on-res-ipsa/
In our capitalist and market-driven nation, Mr. Turley nonetheless offers- FOR FREE— a safety valve for public discourse/ venting and pressure relief.
Bravo. Worthy observation!
Is it any wonder why women were not allowed to vote in Greece in 508 B.C., in Rome in 476 A.D., and in America in 1789?
Is it any wonder why America is an invaded and amassing maelstrom that is $39.6 trillion in debt in 2026?
If it is the duty of men to fight their country’s wars, is it commensurately the duty of women to make their country’s citizens?
The American fertility rate is in a “death spiral,” which means that America is in a “death spiral.”
#. Women don’t generally have babies in an immoral culture if given a choice. I see the men have not defended the homeland, anon, but chase after vice instead.
So the American culture became immoral at the point of Eisenhower and Kennedy, dumba–, since we’re going ad hominem?
Patriotic women should have worked through all your “immorality” by having babies sufficient to grow and defend the nation.
As suspected, misogyny.
well, only women can have babies and their makeup seems to easily brave historically dangerous childbirth to a great extent. Men are physically stronger on average only and so brave in the face of danger comes with that confidence (stupider too? testosterone=aggressible, see: bison) so more able to ‘fight’ historically. But yeah, babies are great, Even if the new-born room is full and there are no bassinets left, we still find a way to keep all of them. We love humans. Sorry, What was your point?
Government sponsored censorship harms national security, in the USA and in England.
When government censors and punishes freedom of speech, dangerous individuals and groups go underground (they go silent).
Would the FBI, DHS and MI5 (British version) want to know which citizens to watch and which of those are prone to violence? Or would the nation be safer not knowing this intelligence?
In the USA, Trump largely won the 2016 election because Democrats ignored citizen’s freedom of speech in states like West Virginia. The citizens of WV were speaking loudly to Democrats about their problems, then the elite Democratic leaders in the big cities told those WV “just go to college” – implying WV were dumb and ignorant – not that Congress neglected them.
Then the big city Democratic leaders essentially pushed out Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat) using purity tests. Today in 2026, a Republican grabbed Manchin’s vote in the U.S. Senate. Democrats lost the Oval Office and one Senate vote.
Censorship is dumb, counter-productive and harms national security. Legally it’s illegal under our First Amendment.
The outcry when Elon bought Tw
Utter revealed why Joseph Biden and his handlers feared — what government directed censorship would be found out, and it has been found out!
And I thought that appointing the emperor’s horse to the Roman Senate, or digging up a long dead Pope to try him for heresy were the best examples of cultural stupidity; but Europe’s mono-culture (the EU) has surpassed any of this to become the most ironic, hypocritical, power-obsessed, dictatorial machines ever. Even past dictators such as Genghis, or Qin Shi Huang, (the first emperor of China), had a rational purpose for their egregious behavior. The Europeans in charge cannot display any rationale for their behavior other than a slavish addiction to the cult of progressive ideology – and that is a suicide pact that is leading to their cultural annihilation.
So a cult of progressive ideology? And what, may one ask, is the reigning ideology in the USA? And what is its rationale? Would love an answer.
“Europeans in charge cannot display any rationale for their behavior other than a slavish addiction to the cult of progressive ideology” Rationale huh? And you can’t figure that out? Um…
Our inherent rights are not granted by a monarch, but by a higher power
There’s your answer
And the “dictatorship of the majority,” that is, the “dictatorship of the poor,” was never intended to hold dominion.
The American government was brilliantly designed and structured to prevent mob rule, aka ochlocracy.
Never was America supposed to entertain one-man, one-vote rule.
Preposterous!
reigning ideology in the USA? and the rationale for it? if you have to ask such a questions, well, you do not get out of the house much.
EVERYONE on the planet knows the answer to your passive aggresiive question. Um…
The EU was a bad idea from the outset.
Europe’s been going downhill since the black plague.
We have our own quandaries to solve regarding free speech and its limits. Should Section 230 be reformed or repealed? Should doxxing be confronted with private lawsuits?…(the only Americans who support doxxing are its perpetrators). Do parents have the right to exercise control over the media their children are exposed to?….acting together through the instrument of government when parental-controls prove ineffective? Should the White House be threatening FCC de-licensing of national news broadcasters?
What’s this fascination with the UK’s circus? Methinks it’s escapist rubbernecking. We have serious work to do here.
What’s this fascination with the UK’s circus? Methinks it’s escapist rubbernecking.
I’d want to know if the house next door is on fire, it could affect me. It also helps to see this from 10,000 feet. There is a civilizational conflict going on between liberal democratic values – classical liberal, not left or “progressive” – on one side, and the gathering forces of darkness and oppression on the other, in the form of Islamic jihad temporarily teamed up with communism. Israel and Western Europe are on the front lines, but we’re not far behind and already experiencing artillery fire. If the front line collapses, that will affect us.
For one thing, it would be nice to know if we can rely on our so-called ‘allies’.
Oh, you mean Israel.
Once is an acvident.
Twice is a coincidence.
The third time it’s enemy action.
Mass, uncontrolled immigration of moslems and other incompatible, third world aliens.
Covid coerced vaccines and lockdown measures.
Accelerating censorship and punishment for speech.
Yes, it varies a bit from country to country, but it’s pretty clear that Western civilization is under coordinated attack from multiple, malevolent actors.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday credited his “super-high testosterone level” with his ability to apply “military-grade makeup.”
“In order to be Secretary of War, I have to be Secretary of Warpaint,” he told reporters. “And my warpaint is by Estée Lauder.”
“Being blessed with off-the-charts testosterone has enabled me to perform with extreme lethality,” he said. “Make no mistake: I am lethal with an eyebrow pencil.”
In perhaps his boldest claim, Hegseth said that his makeup technique proved that he had the highest level of testosterone in the Trump administration, with the possible exception of Jeanine Pirro.
This is not the place to be posting your fetish stories.
“Defense perpetrator Anonymous @9:21 on Wednesday credited his “super high intelligence level” with his ability to not understand today’s discussion.
“In perhaps his boldest claim, Anonymous said that his makeup technique [Anonymity] proved that he had the highest level of drive-by failures and errors in off-topic destinations, with the possible exception of another commenter.”
Lin,
Good one!
I would add to annony’s long, well known history of drive-by failures and errors in off-topic destinations, has demonstrated lack of reading and math skills as to even fail at simple word problems. As a result, annony puts on gross display of the kind of failure to launch we have been seeing so much these days of today’s young people.
Anyone who brags about there intelligence – almost certainly isn’t.
more evidence those on the left lost the ability to be funny.
More evidence this blog is censored. Censored.
Turley can say things only. Click on the Herbert link.
The sun will come out tomorrow.
What evidence is that?
I think this blog is AI.
IFIFY
Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth
A fact-based assessment:
99.9% of extreme speech result in 0% violence. But leaders could stop stoking violent and divisive speech and start being adult grownup leaders.
“Public debates on social media platforms are often heated and polarised. Back in the 90s, Mike Godwin coined a theorem, today known as Godwin’s law, stating that ‘As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches to one.'”
“Our results show that, coherently with Godwin’s law, online debates tend to degenerate towards increasingly toxic exchanges of views.”
Dynamics of online hate and misinformation, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-01487-w
There are essentially 3 forms of actual political violence in the US
First is prison gangs, drug gangs, etc many of which are race based and some of which are “white supremecists”
These are violent people and make political claims – but pretending they have the slightest to do with the political discourse of the country is idiocy. When someone in the Crips murders a competitor or abuses a souse MOST of us do not consider that political violence.
But somehow it is when it is the Aryan Brotherhood or some other white prison gang.
The next is mentally unhealthy people who are with near certainty going to do something violent no matter what, but glom onto some political justification – these are sometimes right sometimes left and often so mixed up that it is easy to claim they are either right or left.
Regardless the riving force is NOT politics it is mental health This is probably 90% of political violence in the US – and honestly it really is not political violence. It does not matter whether it is an alegged right winger or a lefty – the cause is mental health.
Nor does it matter if the attributed cause is some egregious political remarks or some tame ones. You can not reduce the violence of the mentally unhealthy by changing political rhetoric.
The last is actual pure political violence. With RARE exceptions this is always from the left.
Timothy McVeigh would be an exception, Eric Rudolph would be an exception – though in both cases politics still may be subordinate to mental health issues. Everything else from the Weather Underground through to Trump Assassiation attempts and the murder of the United HealthCare CEO or Charlie Kirk is left wing political violence.
People engaged in this violence may claim to be driven by the rhetoric of their political leaders – but mostly they are driven by complex moral failure that justifies violence over political differences.
There are good reasons to tone down political rhetoric – terms like nazi, hitler, fascist, treasonous are bandied about so much they lose their meaning – we have done much the same to cursing. But calling your political enemy treasonous constantly does not lead to more political violence any more than saying F$#K F$#K F$@K leads to more sex.
To the extent there are any exception – that is that of government action.
When governments silence people – that is POLITICAL VIOLENCE – and that is the exclusive domain of the left.
I am not talking about When leaders say stupid things – which they should not say. But when they DO things by FORCE aka governennt.
When the UK arrests people for praying silently – that is political violence as much as when Tyler Robinson murders charley kirk.
#. It’s terrorism.
#. RIP Ann Widdecombe. Most here know she was struck in the head 21 times with a hammer. She not know of 20 strikes.
All should be careful of speech these days. Media wants viewers and listeners for money and imo the right and left have made a deal to keep rage going. It sells.
Have a peaceful evening.