My wife and I have just returned from the United Kingdom, and I have plenty of good things to say about the country. If Paris is an art museum, London is a history museum, filled with culture and a beauty all its own. And its’ greatest beauty is its’ people.
Everyone we met was extraordinarily polite, almost unnervingly so by American standards. And yet, very few were what one might think of as “British.” Those folks, we were told on our arrival, largely moved north. What’s left is a most eclectic mix.
We stayed in a premium hotel in the Mayfair district of London, which is considered upscale, and our hotel staff, largely immigrants and largely from Islamic countries, were as professional, pleasant, and patient as could be. Every “of course, sir” and “certainly, madam” was genuine, not performative. You can tell when service comes from pride rather than obligation, and theirs did. That was true of the other immigrants we met along the way. Everybody was just very polite and kind.
What struck me most, however, were the cab drivers. These were all male Englishmen, all with the old school Cockney accent, and they all seemed to listen to the same call-in radio stations, which were a chorus of working-class frustration. They were happy to talk too, but were guarded at first. These weren’t angry people, but weary ones. They spoke with affection for their country and dismay for what’s been done to it. They didn’t like Donald Trump, but they echoed the same lament you’ll hear from the American working class: “Our government doesn’t care about us anymore. There’s always money for someone else — billions for Ukraine, billions for Pakistan, billions for benefits for people who just arrive. But when pensioners can’t afford heat, they’re told there’s no money left.” These weren’t right wing radicals. They were Labor voters, betrayed by Labor.
Nor were they elitists or xenophobes. In fact, I hired a ride service to take us from Heathrow Airport to our hotel, and our Pakistani driver went on a passionate tirade about how awful London’s Pakistani mayor is, and how uncontrolled immigration is hurting ordinary people like himself — not because they hate foreigners, but because they feel invisible and kicked to the back of the line. What am I supposed to say to that man, that he’s racist? That his lived experience is invalid? You can’t argue someone out of feeling betrayed by their own government, especially if they happen to be right.
But what distressed me even more than an entire class of people being left behind was the climate of fear. You can sense it there. It’s palpable. And it’s not a fear of crime; in fact, their cities feel remarkably safe compared to the post-apocalyptic mess characteristic American cities. They’re afraid to speak their minds. The Brits! Who gave us Magna Carta! Who beheaded kings! Who gave the West its modern debating tradition, from the Oxford Union to the House of Commons! Brits, afraid to speak their minds! I never thought I’d see the day.
And yet, there it was, plain for all to see: ordinary people told to keep their frustrations to themselves because “hate speech” laws might turn an impolite opinion into a criminal act. Britain remains one of the most courteous societies on Earth, but enforced politeness is not the same as genuine peace. When people are told to “shut up and take it,” history suggests things do not end well.
The news while I was there was dominated by three things, and one could not help observe the connective tissue between them: reports of various speech crimes being prosecuted; the UK government wanting to impose a digital identification on all residents; and, sadly, a terrorist attack on a synagogue during Yom Kippur, followed by the usual perfunctory condemnations from the government, but no real accountability or solutions. And God help you if you happen to criticize the “emergency” pro-Hamas demonstrations in Trafalgar Square which occurred immediately after the synagogue attack, even though Britain’s feckless Prime Minister asked the protestors to “respect the grief of British Jews,” as if courtesy were a counter-terrorism strategy, or solution to the broader problem. There’s obviously one sub-population there that doesn’t like the other, or Western culture in general, and a government that caused the problem, and nobody is doing anything about it.
And I think that’s what the free speech prosecutions are really about: not protecting vulnerable groups, but using the pretext of vulnerable groups to shield the government from criticism for its failures.
For my part, I found myself afraid to post anything while I was there. Even something mildly political felt dangerous, as if the wrong word might get flagged somewhere. Time and again, I’d turn on the television or pick up a newspaper and hear that someone was not allowed to say something, not that it was merely wrong, or offensive, but simply that they were “not allowed,” as in “illegal.” That phrase, repeated so casually, chilled me.
There was one story that stood out about an immigrant woman who’d been called an epithet by a group of children on a train. She called the police — over a bad word! from children! — and other passengers objected. They told her they wouldn’t cooperate. Not because they approved of the insult, but because they refused to see thirteen-year-old children dragged into the criminal system for saying something stupid. I’m the last person to countenance racial animus of any kind, so please do not mistake me when I remark that I found the civil disobedience of the adults as encouraging as the epithet was regrettable.
For all its faults, that little act of refusal was a flicker of Britain’s old spirit, the stubborn insistence that liberty matters more than comfort, that free people can handle being offended, that it’s much preferable to live in a free society where one has to suffer occasional insults than in an oppressive one where people live in fear of criminal prosecution for saying the wrong thing.
What’s happening in Britain isn’t far removed from what’s happening in America. Both nations are being hollowed out by political classes that have stopped seeing their citizens as their first responsibility. The problem isn’t the two-party system; Britain’s multiparty system hasn’t saved them from the same alienation. The problem is that democracy only works when there’s broad political solidarity, when people feel they’re part of a shared project built on widespread common values, foremost of which is a preference for liberty over control. Once that dissolves, politics becomes nothing more than one group ruling over another, and speech itself becomes dangerous.
And perhaps that’s the real tragedy of modern liberalism: that in the name of tolerance, it has made honest conversation intolerable. Free speech has become the new class divide — the privilege of those wealthy, insulated, or ideological enough to afford the consequences, or simply unprincipled enough never to think or say anything of consequence. But the rest of us have to whisper.
The West once led the world in liberty. If it doesn’t remember how to shout, it will have to get used to speaking in hushed tones.
You may also be interested in:
- The Criminalization of Speech – Conservative Opinion
- Trojan Horse Immigration: Fighting Hamas Abroad, Welcoming Hamas Here – Conservative Opinion
- America Must Not Recede. Europe Must Ascend. – Conservative Opinion
- Greenland, Trump, and the Abandonment of Conservative Foreign Policy – Conservative Opinion
- Why Would We Want Canada? – Conservative Opinion
