We’ve traveled to Britain several times since 2012, and our interest in the country (and my five novels) have kept us connected to British news. Since the last election there this summer, change is accelerating, and my American perspective doesn’t see it as good. People are being arrested, sentenced, and jailed for tweets that wouldn’t draw a second glance in the United States. You can be arrested for praying near an abortion clinic. Farmers are in an uproar, seeing the government as set on destroying British agriculture. Nottingham University has issued a trigger warning for a course on Chaucer – the warning is for Canterbury Tales containing “Christian expressions.” Judges are often allowing serious criminals to walk if they have some kind of immigrant status.
But there is resistance. One of the most popular British commentators (on Instagram, anyway; you won’t find her on the BBC or even the conservative Daily Mail) is Katie Hopkins, whose reports are often shocking even by free speech standards. The actor Laurence Fox (Inspector Lewis series) was arrested last year for articulating what was normal, everyday speech as recently as 2012. Father Calvin Robinson is an Anglican priest (with Catholic sympathies) who has left Britain for the United States; he’s called the recently resigned Archbishop of Canterbury an apostate (he’s also friends with a certain recently elected U.S. President).
While much of American law and rights can be traced to British common law and the Magna Carta, we have rights and freedoms the British don’t have, like freedom of speech and freedom of the press. For which I am thankful, even with the misinformation that comes out of both social media and the legacy news media.
More Good Reads
Life and Culture
It’s Time to Redefine “Fringe” – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
A Boy Went for a Walk. His Mom Was Charged with ‘Reckless Conduct’ – Leighton Woodhouse at The Free Press.
Faith
The Moses Option – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.
Wanting What I Already Have – Seth Lewis.
What Is My Spiritual Gift? Maybe You’re Asking the Wrong Question – Jonathan Threlfall.
American Stuff
Why the Gettysburg Address is One of the Most Famous Speeches in History – Christopher Klein at History.
Ode to Gettysburg at 161 – Grace Phan Bellafiore at Front Porch Republic.
Immigration is a Mess. Here’s How to Fix It – Reihan Salam at The Free Press.
Absolutely Tailor-Make for a Ska Remake – Greg Sullivan at Sippican Cottage.
The Abolitionist Titan You’ve Never Heard Of – Isaac Willour at Law & Liberty.
Israel
The Altneu Antisemitism, Part 1 and Part II – Michael Oren at Clarity.
News Media
The Guardian’s Retreat from the Battlefield of Ideas – Andrew Doyle at The Free Press.
Poetry
Nomad: The bus to anywhere – Kelly Belmonte at Kelly’s Scribbles.
“Silence,” poem by Babette Deutsch – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Anthony Hecht’s Hard Hours and Hard Lessons – Steve Knepper at New Verse Review.
CS Lewis: A Sonnet – Malcolm Guite.
Art
Discover Claude Monet’s London – The Courtauld Gallery, London.
A Van Gogh painting, newly authenticated in an unexpected Polish museum, has gone on display in a church dome – Martin Bailey at The Art Newspaper.
Writing and Literature
Coriolanus’ Sea of Bloody Fists – Henry Oliver at Liberties.
Finlandia by Jean Sibelius – SWR Vokalensemble
Painting: The Philosopher Reading, oil on canvas by Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779).
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