Free speech in the United Kingdom has long been in free fall, with expanding criminalization and regulation of speech. Much of this effort is carried out to combat disinformation or radicalism.
The subjectivity of such “Prevent” standards is evident in a new media report that officers are being trained to look for “cultural nationalism,” including those people who are concerned that Western culture is under threat from mass migration.
Such concerns are now viewed as indicative of “right-wing terrorist ideology.”
Europe, like the United States, is showing a surge in political support for politicians seeking to limit and reverse mass immigration into their countries. That includes Great Britain.
The material is part of an online training course for British hospitals, schools, universities, and other public institutions that are expected to identify and report extremists to the government.
The training would subject a large number of British citizens to potential investigation as right-wing extremists. In 2023, a government report by William Shawcross concluded “populist conservative voices who have nothing to do with violent extremism” are often identified by investigators even though the overwhelming number of attacks committed in the UK were “Islamist in nature.”
There have also been warnings that by classifying “cultural nationalism” as an indication of extremism, the anti-terror scheme could be used to stifle public debate.
A Home Office spokesman insisted, however, that “Prevent is not about restricting debate or free speech, but about protecting those susceptible to radicalisation.”
That is a rationale already used in the UK to arrest those with dangerous thoughts or viewpoints.
For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests, 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 wearing 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.”
Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement:
“I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”
Lodder lambasted Brock for holding Nazi and other hateful values:
“[i]t is clear that you are a right-wing extremist, your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography which you have studied and appeared to share with others…”
Recently, the UK effectively resumed blasphemy prosecutions and previously arrested a woman for silently praying to herself near an abortion clinic.
The training captures the potential chilling effect on speech where any publicly stated concerns over immigration and Western Civilization could lead to your being reported to the police. It reflects the cavalier approach to such speech regulations in not just the UK but throughout Europe. However, this European model is being promoted by many in the United States, including some who are calling on the European Union to challenge the United States over the regulation of speech.