It's time for a brutal truth: JD Vance wa right about free speech in Britain

Britain’s complacency when it comes to free speech in this country can be measured by the testiness with which people react to criticisms about it.

- BY MELANIE McDONAGH

When JD Vance sounded off about Europe — not least Britain — putting the principles of free speech at risk in a talk he gave in Munich in February, there weren’t many who actually read his text, but there were lots who responded irritably to Americans weighing in on an issue that seems pretty OK. Former queen of Woman’s Hour, Jenni Murray, reacted badly to JD’s views on anti-abortion activists being banned from even silent protest near clinics. On Any Questions, an American, Sarah Elliot, who had the temerity to raise the Lucy Connolly question — she’s the Tory councillor’s wife sentenced to 30 months in jail for a rash tweet about the Southport murders (subsequently withdrawn and apologised for) — got short shrift when she suggested it all seemed a bit excessive. Yanks, huh?

But you know, the Americans have a point, and they’ve got the high ground, since free speech in the US is guaranteed under the First Amendment. In fact Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, declared the other day that people abroad who seek to curb Americans’ liberty to speak their mind may find they don’t get US visas. “It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on US citizens or US residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on US soil,” he wrote on X. “Free speech is essential to the American way of life — a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority.”