From time to time, we are forced to ask whether our steadfast ally, Great Britain, is still a meaningfully free country. It's a painful and regrettable question, but it's a serious one. In many ways, the answer is yes, but in other respects, it's at best a mixed bag. We recently recounted the story of parents who were hauled away to the police station because they'd been fairly mildly critical of leadership-related decisions at their child's school in group text messages. Another recent instance involved a journalist getting a knock at her door from police investigating a months-old tweet she'd deleted. Aggressively policing speech is all the rage on the other side of the Atlantic, it seems, very much including in the 'free' Western world. British cops also arrested a man for posting a complaint about Palestinian flags all over his English neighborhood on social media, even as giant anti-Semitic, pro-terrorism hate rallies rarely seemed to result in much action at all from the authorities. Indeed, multiple counter-protesters (demonstrating against anti-Semitism and terrorism) were taken into custody 'for their own safety,' or whatever.
And now, a British woman has had her nearly three-year prison sentence upheld over a social media post she published in anger (then later deleted) after young girls were murdered in an infamous massacre:
'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
Connolly, the wife of a former Conservative councillor, was jailed after pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred following a post on X that mentioned setting fire to hotels housing migrants. Connolly's controversial tweet, posted hours after Axel Rudakubana killed three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport, read: "Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f---ing hotels full of the b------s for all I care, while you're at it, take the treacherous government politicians with them." ... Though she deleted the post less than four hours later...Connolly's personal circumstances have featured prominently in her case. She cares for her sick husband, who is suffering from a bone marrow complaint, and has a 12-year-old daughter...The court heard that Connolly lost her son, Harry, in tragic circumstances around 14 years ago, and that news of the Southport murders had heightened her sensitivity. Despite being eligible for temporary release since November, she has not been allowed to visit her family.
In a moment of passion -- the cold-blooded murder of children should stir hot feelings -- this mother, who'd previously lost one of her own children, sent out a bad tweet. She quickly pulled it down, apologized, and published subsequent messages urging people not to riot or engage in violence. Too bad, the system has decided, she gets 31 months in prison. For a tweet. She's the primary caregiver for her sick husband, and mother to a 12-year-old. She got justifiably angry over an atrocity and said something bad. That's unforgivable, apparently, despite her contrition and expressions of regret. Madness. The commentator in the clip notes that members of literal rape gangs (which were covered up systematically by British officials due to woke identity politics) have received more lenient sentences in that country. That's a broken society. Or at least a broken elite society. Others are noticing, too, of course:
This, from @AllisonPearson, is hard to read. We are releasing violent offenders early while keeping a harmless mother behind bars.
— Daniel Hannan (@DanielJHannan) May 21, 2025
How shameful to have political prisoners here. This is Britain, for God's sake, not Burma.https://t.co/tqnmFB6nWq
A deleted tweet about migrants gets you 31 months in prison. This gets you nothing. https://t.co/CDkcpoaMA5
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) May 21, 2025
Separate tiers of justice, with disparate standards for the politically favored and disfavored, tears at the social fabric of a culture. It crushes trust in institutions. It's corrosive. The UK's ruling left-wing Labour party government, meanwhile, has just teamed up with their "progressive" counterparts in Canada and France to condemn Israel's conduct in the war Hamas started -- undoubtedly to help placate the large numbers of deeply illiberal constituents whose votes they covet and now rely upon. The types of voters who might attend pro-Hamas hate rallies, or who might object to Pakistani rape gangs getting 'overly' harsh treatment under the law. Grotesque:
Stop for a moment. Read this. And then imagine being a Jewish leader in Canada. Your newly elected prime minister has just been thanked by Hamas — BY HAMAS!!! (applause for your prime minister from Hamas…let that sink in)— for taking, in the words of Hamas, “an important step in… https://t.co/Q9SxSm3cJK
— Dan Senor (@dansenor) May 20, 2025
Stop for a moment. Read this. And then imagine being a Jewish leader in Canada. Your newly elected prime minister has just been thanked by Hamas — BY HAMAS!!! (applause for your prime minister from Hamas…let that sink in)— for taking, in the words of Hamas, “an important step in… https://t.co/Q9SxSm3cJK
— Dan Senor (@dansenor) May 20, 2025
It does appear, however, as though the British people have already had quite enough of the Labour government they (strikingly underwhelmingly) elected just last year:
🚨 NEW: Starmer’s government crashes to net -50 approval
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) May 20, 2025
Approve: 14%
Disapprove: 64%
That’s what happens when you flood the country, sell out our fishing waters, and hand Brussels the keys.
Britain’s had enough of betrayal. pic.twitter.com/jxePmSNXgq
And given some of the circumstances described above, is it any surprise that Nigel Farage's right-populist Reform Party is now the most popular in Britain?
New polling
— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) May 16, 2025
Reform 29%
Labour 22%
Tories 18%
Source - Techne
16th May pic.twitter.com/ThF7WuYqEs
Reform UK record their highest ever poll rating in YouGov's latest Westminster voting intention, while the Tories and Labour are at their lowest since 2019
— YouGov (@YouGov) May 7, 2025
Ref: 29% (+3 from 27-28 Apr)
Lab: 22% (-1)
Con: 17% (-3)
Lib Dem: 16% (+1)
Green: 10% (+1)
SNP: 3% (=) pic.twitter.com/NP6hFoGc5w
When elites fail so hard and so often, other political forces fill the void. See: Trump, Donald.
