Where do you strike the balance between expression and security? It is a question Americans don\u2019t need to ask. Our Constitution is plain and unambiguous about our fundamental rights to say what we want, write what we like, to gather in protest and \u2013 sweet relief \u2013 to mock our government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not everyone is so lucky. Not even our friends. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t give me any great joy to be sitting in America and describing the really awful, authoritarian situation that we have now sunk into,\u201d Britain\u2019s Nigel Farage\u00a0told the House Judiciary Committee<\/a>\u00a0yesterday afternoon, as he detailed the speech crackdown being carried out in the UK. \u201cAt what point did we become North Korea?\u201d<\/p>\n Ever the controversialist, the Reform leader \u2013 Britain\u2019s new right-wing party \u2013 is always thinking about the headlines. And his claims are garnering the attention he seeks. But is it true? Is the UK indistinguishable from North Korea? Obviously, no. Is the UK upholding the country\u2019s historical and noble commitment to free speech? Tragically, also no.<\/p>\n It feels unsettling to say so. Having worked in the UK for the past decade, I knew that reports back in the States about Britain\u2019s skyrocketing crime rates or \u201cno go\u201d zones were overblown. But in the case of speech, there has been a noticeable shift towards intolerance, with reinforcing legislation. Updates to the Public Order Act in 2023 have radically undermined the security Britons have traditionally had to speak freely and to protest. What\u2019s followed has been a series of baffling, and dangerous, outcomes.<\/p>\n Just this week, writer and comedian Graham Linehan<\/a> landed at Heathrow airport outside of London, only to be greeted by five armed police officers at the plane\u2019s door. His detention was so aggressive, he ended up in hospital for dangerously high blood pressure, where\u00a0he wrote an account<\/a>\u00a0of the arrest. His crime? Three tweets from earlier in the year, making a series of controversial comments about trans men and the pro-trans lobby.<\/p>\n There is a good chance Linehan will avoid jail time, now that the UK\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer has\u00a0intervened<\/a>\u00a0to ask the police to stop policing tweets and to start prioritizing violent crime. The Metropolitan Police chief\u00a0shot back<\/a>, asking the government to clarify the laws that police are supposed to enforce the Public Order Act which currently has police officers reaching for handcuffs when someone takes to social media or hauling civilians into jail cells for\u00a0silently praying<\/a>\u00a0near abortion clinics (quite literally \u201cthought crime\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n The condition of Linehan\u2019s bail is that he \u201ccannot go on Twitter.\u201d Heaven forbid he speaks some more. Speech is the enemy, it seems, and it must be suppressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Farage\u2019s claim on the Hill that Americans may not be safe traveling to Britain is an exaggeration. But it is an increasingly credible hypothetical. Linehan is not a British citizen \u2014 he is an Irishman who he was traveling from Arizona and it was staff based on American soil who,\u00a0according to Linehan\u2019s account<\/a>, changed his seat before he boarded the plane. That feels uncomfortably close to home.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Lucy Connolly didn\u2019t avoid jail. The 41 year old mother was\u00a0sentenced<\/a>\u00a0last year to 31 months in prison for a tweet, quickly deleted, she sent out around the Southport riots, triggered in the north of England when three little girls were stabbed and\u00a0killed by a British teenager<\/a>\u00a0(10 more were injured) during a dance class.\u00a0<\/p>\n