If Britain Is Our Bellwether, Things Do Not Bode Well

The “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States has often been a rocky one—as it is now. In spite of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s workmanlike efforts to get on President Trump’s good side, London and Washington have frequently been at odds this year. There was an Oval Office confrontation over British restrictions on free speech, and the Pentagon’s review of the AUKUS high technology and submarine agreement may cause an even more serious rupture.

This has led to confusion on the other side of the pond. One prominent Briton questioned why the White House has criticized London more than it has other, more transgressive countries. Trump is personally fond of Great Britain and the royal family, but this affection only goes so far. He and his movement see in the mother country precisely the sort of problems they fear most and are determined to head off.

The scandal Defense Secretary John Healey revealed in Parliament this week is a case in point: In February 2022, a Royal Marine inadvertently exposed information about roughly 25,000 Afghans who had worked with the British government. Parts of that list appeared on Facebook, and as the danger mounted, the government helped them and their families reach safety in Britain.

This was the right course to take, but the attempt to cover it up was not. The government issued a “super injunction” that prohibited journalists and parliamentarians from asking questions about the debacle or speaking openly about it for nearly two years. The judge who reviewed and ultimately struck it down asked, “Am I going bonkers?” when he learned about the £7 billion cost for resettlement. This enforced secrecy had no point: A senior Taliban official told the Telegraph, “we got the list from the internet during the very first days when it was leaked.”

The scandal exposed one of the most pernicious problems in British society: the government’s increasing fondness for censorship. Earlier this year, a grandmother was arrested for standing outside an abortion provider holding a sign that said, “coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” Another woman was sentenced to 31 months in prison for an intemperate and profane social media post shortly after a jihadist—an actual menace to society—stabbed to death three young girls.

Saying nothing at all can also be a criminal offense in today’s Britain: An Army veteran has been convicted for praying silently outside an abortion clinic. Small wonder the State Department is “concerned about infringements on freedom of expression” there.

Yet some ostensibly illegal speech is protected. Anti-Semitic mobs chant and jeer with impunity. Sometimes, as during the recent debacle at Glastonbury, the BBC will even broadcast it.

Both the Tories and Labour are suppressing unfavored speech, perhaps because neither has clear answers to the country’s greatest problems. The only large, high-income economy whose productivity has grown more slowly since 2007 than Britain’s is Italy’s. Disposable income per person could be a third higher if not for this malaise. The Economist reports that a decade ago, “average weekly earnings in Britain were near-equivalent in US dollar terms to those in America.” Now, the wages for coders in cities like Glasgow are “slightly closer to India” than to Texas. To stave off the economic collapse, Labour is… lowering the voting age to 16.

This causes alarm in the United States for many reasons, not the least of which is the threat posed to our transatlantic alliance, a pillar of the American-led order. Few countries have the global reach that Britain does, as evinced by the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales’s deployment to the Pacific Ocean, and only fellow members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing group match U.S. strategic culture so closely. When trouble comes calling, a Union Jack shows up. The decline of British power is thus a geopolitical setback for Americans.

Britain’s political culture is akin to ours too. For example, the Brexit vote presaged Donald Trump’s surprise 2016 victory. This can also cut the other way: Both countries embraced wokeness more enthusiastically than many others. Their establishments seem determined to regulate economic activity away and are increasingly eager to censor unfashionable views. Americans have the First Amendment’s free speech protections, but that is only one court-packing scheme away from oblivion.

So it’s no wonder that the Trump administration aims to turn the tide here and across the pond. British voters seem fed up too: Nigel Farage’s populist Reform party has shot to the top of the polls.

The ultimate example of Britain’s schoolmarmism came this week when Emma Watson (no relation) was banned from driving after being caught going eight miles per hour above the speed limit. Say what you will about Sir Keir. At least he’s tough on crime.

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