There are a few reasons why I keep writing about the fall of Britain.
First, although not foremost, is that Great Britain is the birthplace of liberal democracy, and despite its flaws, it is "the rights of Englishmen" that both inspired and to a certain extent still guide our own legal traditions. With the exception of Louisiana, English Common Law still guides American jurisprudence.
Anybody who has read John Locke's Second Treatise on Government will instantly recognize that the Declaration of Independence is a near-perfect condensation of the ideas laid out by Locke.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, 250 years on from America's founding, Great Britain is a canary in the coalmine for those of us who fear that liberalism is in retreat. Just as Margaret Thatcher's rise to power preceded and predicted the rise of Ronald Reagan and conservatism in America, Great Britain's retreat from liberal values--seen in both of the major political parties--preceded America's own retreat from the principles of limited government, free speech, and democratic governance.
Third, what we are seeing in Britain is also happening throughout the Anglosphere, and the Anglosphere has always been the home of liberalism. Other European countries have waxed and waned in their commitment to freedom--the French are on their FIFTH Republic now since 1789, and Germany hasn't exactly been a beacon of hope in the 20th and 21st centuries. Spain? Uh, no. And so on.
But Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, have a long, if imperfect, history of promoting liberal values.
'People convicted of participating in child sexual exploitation have received lower sentences!'
— GB News (@GBNEWS) May 20, 2025
Toby Young fumes at the sentence handed to Lucy Connolly, who was jailed for an online rant about migrants. pic.twitter.com/tK4246F0bA
That is why I am so bothered by the attack on free speech and the suppression of ideas in recent years. The prior commitment to the principle that the state has a right to suppress violence, but not ideas has been replaced by its inverse: speech is violence, and violence is speech.
This is the tweet that landed a two and a half year prison sentence.
— Tom Harwood (@tomhfh) May 20, 2025
Two and a half years.
For a tweet. https://t.co/azomw2PzWn pic.twitter.com/saiHZOE0Gg
This belief is not confined to Great Britain. It is the animating principle for modern leftism. If you have spent any time in academic institutions over the past couple of decades, you would have seen how this idea has become a mantra among the cultural and intellectual elite. When critical theorists and alphabet ideologists tell you that "deadnaming" somebody or "misgendering" them is genocidal violence, they really mean it because in their world, "reality" is a construct of the mind, and denying their reality is violence.
Jacek Brzozowski raped a 15-year-old girl during one of a number of parties held at his home at which she and her friend were raped by other men.
— Chris Rose (@ArchRose90) May 21, 2025
Brzozowski was today sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years.
Lucy Connolly wrote one stupid tweet. 31 months.
😐 pic.twitter.com/KS12DwDBiz
That's how you wind up in situations where young mothers get tossed in jail for 30 months for intemperate tweets, while actual rapists and pedophiles get lighter sentences, and when they are illegal aliens, protected from deportations because their home countries don't embrace pedophiles.
Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer denies knowledge of Lucy Connolly - who was arrested 8 days after posting on X.
— Emily Wilding Davison🏴🇬🇧 (@Wommando) May 21, 2025
He says: "Free Speech - Yes, Incitement to violence - No."
Still, over a month after trans activists called for violence against women in London protests - no arrests. pic.twitter.com/2OkSEQJzR9
Left-wing protesters can commit almost any violent act and be applauded, or even violate the supposedly sacrosanct speech laws if they are promoting left-wing ideas. If the violence is in service of leftist ideas, it is free speech. If the speech serves to promote conservative or any ideas that deviate from leftist orthodoxy, it is violence that must be severely punished.
If Starmer isn’t prepared to speak out about the disproportionality of Lucy Connolly’s sentence, he should sack Wes Streeting.
— Northern Lass (@northerness) May 20, 2025
Can’t have it both ways. Violent words online are either bad, or they aren’t,
Two similar posts, one person’s in prison and the other’s in government. pic.twitter.com/IIopAtX9PS
This principle is already official government policy in Great Britain, but enforcing it here in the United States is the aspiration of the left. While it is much more difficult to use the power of the state to punish speech "crimes" here, we already see how in Blue cities actual violence in service of leftist causes is rewarded.
The takeover of Seattle during the George Floyd riots was applauded as a "Summer of Love" by the Mayor, and even after burning down swathes of major cities, many arrested protesters were not only let go without punishment, but cities compensated them for the distress caused by their arrests.
A reminder that this man, Labour councillor, Ricky Jones, cheered on by amnesty international, calling for "nazi fascists" (white people) to have their throats cut, still hasn't gone to trial nearly a year later.
— Cub Bearson (@Cub_Bearson) May 16, 2025
There's more chance of me going to jail for posting about it pic.twitter.com/iYcAZQnzCT
Violence is speech, and speech violence. Does anybody believe that a single college or university would be cracking down on the vandals who destroy property or harass Jews if Donald Trump weren't president? Their violence is speech, but students who object to the vicious actions and ideology are hounded for "hate speech."
Lucy Connolly should not be in prison for what she wrote.
— Alex Armstrong (@alexharmstrong) May 20, 2025
Was she wrong? Yes. Would I say it? No.
Did she really intend to incite violence? Quite clearly, no.
Others have done far worse than her and are on lesser sentences or even free.
Change the law; stop two-tier justice. pic.twitter.com/PA53NLIr7T
The government--at least in the guise of the police--may not be able to throw you in jail for speaking your mind. But the FBI under Biden had teams around the country hounding people for Facebook or Twitter posts. The government used its power and resources and even conspired with other governments to censor Americans.
Full article https://t.co/UBlJLVxry9
— Bernie (@Artemisfornow) May 20, 2025
The whole point of liberalism--this is why the First Amendment is the FIRST Amendment--is that speech, even offensive speech, is always permitted, while violence is not. This idea is foundational to the liberal order.
Speech is speech. Violence is violence.
That principle is not just under threat--leftists are gleefully trying to kill it.
