Recently, we’ve been hearing a lot from UK voices, including the Prime Minister, about how the secular leftist government of the UK allows free speech, just as much as in America. The UK doesn’t have a first amendment, or anything equivalent. Let’s take a look at a very recent case and see what you can expect from the secular left if you act like a Christian in public.

Here’s the story from The Stream:

A U.K. court earlier today convicted a pro-life clinical scientist of violating a “buffer zone” outside an abortion facility in a trial that has triggered threats of trade reprisals from the Trump administration over “freedom of expression” in Britain.

Dr. Livia Tossici-Bolt, a devout Catholic, was found guilty on two counts of breaching a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) or “buffer zone” outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) abortion facility in Bournemouth in March 2023.

The 64-year grandmother from Italy, who lives in Britain, was holding a sign that read: “Here to talk, if you want.” The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is defending Tossici-Bolt, said that several women approached her to converse about issues they were dealing with.

Tossici-Bolt was sentenced Friday to a conditional discharge and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £20,000 in full by May 31. According to the order, she will face prison time if she is convicted of any future offenses in the next two years.

You can see the sign that she was holding up in the image. Does that look scary or threatening to you? In Tennessee, you can hold up a sign like that, and you can have a conversation, and you won’t be arrested by multiple armed policemen. But not so in the fascist UK. The secular left is very sensitive about speech that offends them. And they’re willing to use force to stamp it out.

The bad thing about this case is that ADF argued for her, and they lost, which is unusual for the ADF. It shows you how far the UK has gone down the road of secular left fascism.

Here is her reaction to the verdict:

In response to the verdict Friday, Tossici-Bolt said, “This is a dark day for Great Britain. I was not protesting and did not harass or obstruct anyone. All I did was offer consensual conversation in a public place, as is my basic right, and yet the court found me guilty.

“Freedom of expression is in a state of crisis in the U.K. What has happened to this country? The U.S. State Department was right to be concerned by this case as it has serious implications for the entire Western world.”

This sort of thing happens a lot in the UK:

Pro-lifers were expecting Tossici-Bolt to be found guilty after they became aware that the judge in her case had already found pro-life advocate Adam Smith-Connor guilty last October for silently praying outside the same abortion clinic in November 2022.

[…]Judge Orla Austin found him guilty of breaching the buffer zone and sentenced him to a conditional discharge after ordering him to pay prosecution costs of £9,000 (about $11,700).

In her decision, Austin reasoned that Smith-Connor’s prayer amounted to “disapproval of abortion” because at one point his head was seen slightly bowed and his hands were clasped.

[…]In Tossici-Bolt’s case, Austin said, “I conclude that she lacks insight into the fact that her presence could have a detrimental impact upon women attending the clinic, their associates, the staff, and members of the public.”

I’m giving you all of these facts, so you can really understands what happens when people elect the secular left to run the government. A lot of people in the UK don’t know the history of Stalin, Mao, and other secular leftists in history. But they are finding out now.

By the way, the Stream article notes that the leader of the Conservative Party of the UK had no problem with this verdict, and opposed the United States for disapproving of it.

You might remember a previous story that I blogged about, in which another pro-life Christian was arrested just for praying outside of an abortion clinic.

Here’s that story, reported by the Daily Wire:

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a 45-year-old charity volunteer, was arrested and charged on four counts after she told police she “might” be silently praying near the U.K.’s leading provider of NHS-funded abortion services BPAS Robert Clinic in Kings Norton, Birmingham, according to local media.

[…]Police arrested Vaughan-Spruce on December 6 and subsequently charged her on December 15 with four counts of failing to comply with a Public Space Protection Order in so-called censorship zones, which authorities introduced to criminalize individuals appearing to be “engaging in any act of approval or disapproval or attempted act of approval or disapproval.”

Just a few days ago, there was an EXCELLENT article that appeared in the UK Telegraph, written by Allison Pearson. (archived here)

She wrote about another free speech case:

If the name Lucy Connolly rings a bell it’s because she was one of the 1,500-plus people arrested in connection with the social unrest which followed the July 29 Southport massacre of three little girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. In fact, that’s not strictly accurate. Mrs Connolly, then aged 41 – she turned 42 in prison in January – played no part in the rioting, but a tweet she posted on the day when Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King and Alice da Silva Aguiar were murdered by Axel Rudakubana was enough to get her arrested eight days later, and charged under Section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, with publishing material intending to stir up racial hatred.

The secular left in the UK has made a commitment to “multiculturalism”. And they don’t mean giving work permits to brown-skinned software engineers who speak perfect English, like America did with me. They mean letting in men of Middle Eastern origin, who have very different views of stabbing and raping than most Americans have. And if any UK citizen expresses disapproval of the stabbing or the raping, then the UK police is right there to put them in prison. In fact, that’s what they think their job is.

It’s very important for American tourists to understand that the UK is no longer a free, Western country. They’ve gone fascist. They have two-tier policing. You need to stay out of there.

(Image source: Alliance Defending Freedom UK)