In Britain the two main political parties chipped away at freedom of speech bit by bit over decades. Sometimes when speech freedoms were removed the politicians implied that it would 'protect' people from harmful words but words don't harm people in the main actions do. Yes there is such a thing as credible incitement to violence but a lot of what is called by the British Establishment as 'incitement' is often not. There is a world of difference between genuine incitement and what could be termed hot words.

Britain's dire situation with regards freedom of speech means that the populace cannot openly and freely discuss stuff that is important to them or anything that goes against the mainstream political narrative. We should not be having, as we do in Britain, dozens of people a day arrested because of opinions or words that some find insulting.

Britain is an object lesson of the value of free speech and should also be that for Americans so that they appreciate their First Amendment much more than they do because the alternative the FA is being arrested for quoting an offensive song lyric as happened a few years back to one British teenager.