Since 2021, the Index on Censorship has ranked Britain as ‘partially open’ (the third tier). Britain ranks 20th for press freedom (worse than Trinidad and Tobago).
Just released: The US State Department concludes that in 2024, Britain’s human rights ‘worsened,’ and the British government is partial in protecting rights and freedoms.
‘Significant human rights issues included credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression; and crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism. The government sometimes took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, but prosecution and punishment for such abuses was inconsistent.’
There are three main categorical freedoms being routinely violated in Britain. In US Constitutional law, they are known as: freedom of speech; freedom of assembly; and freedom of press. British authorities need a reminder of these freedoms.
British violations of freedom of speech:
Let’s fully understand how this started, more than 25 years ago. In 1999, the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence (in 1993) recommended that police should record hateful incidents as a matter of intelligence, even if the incidents were not criminal. QUANGOs, led by the College of Policing, encouraged police forces to record non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs). And police took it upon themselves to visit the supposed haters, to ‘correct your thinking’, to intimidate them with warnings of escalation, and even to strong-arm them into taking thought-correction classes with the police, at cost.
The Racial & Religious Hatred Act (2006) criminalizes hatred of protected characteristics. It was once sold as a protection against violence, but was soon wielded to criminalize speech.
