In the classic movie comedy,A Fish Called Wanda, John Cleese lamented,“do you have any idea what it’s like being English? Being so correct all the time, being so stifled by this dread of, of doing the wrong thing.”
Now 86, Cleese has a more pressing concern about being English:whether his exercise of free speech will make him a criminal in his own country.
In a recent interview, Cleese observed that the government’s new speech standards would classify many citizens, including himself, as presumptive criminals for criticizing certain policies.
Heobservedthat:”As I am an Islamosceptic, I’m now worried that the Labour government may categorise me as a terrorist…”
The government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has continued its headlong plunge into the criminalization of speech. The guidelines include a section on cultural nationalism, stating that such views are now the subject of government crackdowns. To even argue that Western culture is under threat from mass migration or a lack of integration by certain groups is being treated as a dangerous ideology.
Cleeserespondedby saying,“I’m clearly a terrorist, so I’m afraid they are going to have to arrest me.”
The tragedy is that this is no wicked Monty Python joke. Cleese has every reason to be concerned.
As I discuss inRage and the Republic,the United Kingdom has eviscerated free speech in the name of social cohesion and order.
For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests.
A man wasconvicted of sending a tweet while drunk, referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for ananti-police t-shirt.Another was arrested forcalling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.”Yet another was arrested forsinging “Kung Fu Fighting.”
Source: ZeroHedge News
