Is 'Orwellian' Britain 'Sleepwalking into a Totalitarian Future'?

LONDON –  When a British lawyer and free speech advocate wanted to test the United Kingdom's censorship laws, she posted on social media that perhaps her cat is a "Methodist" because it likes "Dreamies" cat treats. Then she asked a friend to report her for "hate speech against Methodists" to see what might happen, and local police issued a case number.  

Sarah Phillimore tweeted more nonsensical posts about her pets and says she now has a police record. 

Phillimore says, "It was recorded as a 'barrister posting hate'."

When British police stopped army veteran Adam Smith-Connor as he prayed for a son lost to an abortion, while standing within an abortion clinic buffer zone, officers' first question to him was, "What is the nature of your prayer?" 

Connor answered, "What is the nature?  I'm praying for my son."
And for that, Smith-Connor was convicted of what many are calling "a thought crime."

Dr. Kelvin Wright, also a British army veteran, saw his military career effectively ruined after being put through an Army disciplinary process for sharing a social media post in favor of women's rights that offended a transgender British soldier.  

Although found innocent, Wright left the army.

Wright told us, "The frightening moral is, don't say any opinions."

British police have investigated 250,000 so-called non-crime hate incidents in the last 10 years, an average of 66 each day. 

Some citizens have gone to prison.

When it comes to freedom, Britain has reached a tipping point. A nation that prides itself on being a champion of liberty seems to be sleepwalking into a totalitarian future. 

Toby Young, the founder of Britain's Free Speech Union, says a few years ago he thought that free speech rights in Britain couldn't possibly get any worse.  He now says that was "naïve."

"I liken it to falling through a burning building," Young said. "You know, every time you think things can't get any worse and you've finally reached rock bottom, the floor gives way and you're falling again."

Some, like London Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson, have been investigated for social media posts a year or more old.

Toby Young calls it "offense archaeology."

Get charged with a "Non-Crime Hate incident," and it can become a stain on your career, showing up on background checks. 

"No reasonable person wants to have that mark on their name," says Harry Miller, the Founder of an organization called Fair Cop. "No reasonable person wants to have on a police record that you are guilty of some form of hate."

Miller a former police officer, started the group after facing charges of what police labeled transphobic hate speech in 2019.  

Fair Cop challenges law enforcement for interfering with free speech.  He was joined by Sarah Phillimore.

"The vast majority of police officers in this country are sick and tired of this nonsense," Miller told CBN News. "They too have to be careful about the opinions that they express because they too can find themselves at the wrong end of a non-crime hate incident, a disciplinary proceeding and potentially being thrown out of the police force. But in my dealings with the police, I've seen far too many police officers who look like they are enjoying what they're doing."

While Britain does not have a First Amendment like the US, common law is supposed to protect speech. 

However, British news commentator Connor Tomlinson says you can't say Britain has free speech when only speech approved by the government is allowed.  

"No, we don't have free speech in this country," Tomlinson said. "Instead, if you're a Christian, if you question the open borders mass immigration agenda, or if you say some, let's say febrile and ill-advised things on a social media app but you are not a member of a state-approved left-wing NGO, then you will be sent to prison."

Adam Smith-Connor says his legal ordeal has been personally tough, after he fought for freedom in Afghanistan and lost friends there. 

"I've got a profound sense of sadness for our nation," Smith-Connor said. "The fact that we have plummeted to such a depth so quickly is truly shocking to me."

In his book 1984, George Orwell depicted a future totalitarian state modeled after Stalin's Soviet Union. He probably never imagined that Britain would one day be described as "Orwellian." 

Miller said, "It's pure Orwell. This is straight out of 1984. As I told the police, '1984 is a dystopian novel.  It is not a police how-to manual.'"
 
Young believes liberty can be restored in Britain, but citizens must get involved.

"If we abandon our belief, our commitment to free speech, it will be not just catastrophic for us, but catastrophic for the rest of the world."