While the sentiments are by no means universal, a large number of British citizens are opposed to their government’s open-door immigration policies.
In Europe, most immigrants come from the Muslim Middle East. Many are young, male, and unattached, and do not readily assimilate into secular, liberal European culture.
There have been numerous incidents and outrages, some lasting for decades. Between the 1970s and 2013, a Muslim Pakistani gang in Rotherham, England, sexually abused more than 1,400 British girls. While British citizens complained, their government seemed mostly concerned with combatting the resultant backlash against immigration.
And this is but one example. Political correctness is a cult in America. In the United Kingdom, it’s the established faith of officialdom.
But this year, enough was finally enough. In 2024, British citizens rebelled at the polls—and in the streets, just like the citizens of France, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe. (Throughout Europe, there is a clear divide between the will of the people, and the will of those who occupy the halls of government.)
We Americans tend to regard Freedom of Speech as absolute, the depredations of left-leaning tech firms and the Biden administration notwithstanding.
It is not necessarily so in Europe. Ordinary people in countries like Germany and the UK are generally freer to speak their minds than those in countries like North Korea and Saudi Arabia. But Western Europeans are subject to limitations that most Americans—including some who plan to vote for Harris in November—would find unacceptable.
The authorities in the UK, in particular, can be rather heavy-handed. British activist Tommy Robinson recently had to flee the UK after he screened his own documentary in defiance of a British court order.
This past week, Lucy Connolly, the wife of a Tory councilor, was taken into custody for posting anti-immigration messages on X.
And they wonder why we had the American Revolution back in 1776. Speaking of America, London’s Metropolitan Police chief, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, has threatened to extradite Americans who say the wrong things about British laws and the situation on the far side of the Atlantic pond.
“We will throw the full force of the law at people. And whether you’re in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you,” Rowley told reporters in August.
“Try it, redcoat!” some X users retorted. To most Americans, the idea of ‘Sir’ Mark Rowley throwing them in a British jail over a social media post sounds far-fetched. And perhaps it is. But don’t forget, we have an election coming up in a few months. Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has already said that he would like to see more restrictions on free speech—at least for those who disagree with him.
Britain appears headed for some rough times ahead. Tommy Robinson and Lucy Connelly are not grumpy, septuagenarian Baby Boomers. Robinson and Connolly were both born in the 1980s. They are Millennials: members of the generation believed to be blindly left-leaning in all matters.
The current UK regime, on the other hand, is the creation of left-leaning Baby Boomers. The generation whose fathers fought World War II. They grew up in the prosperity of the postwar years, and fashionably disdained British values.
But that generation has turned Britain into a decaying, crime-ridden cesspool. The younger generation is rising in response. But is it too late?
-ET