I wanted to commend Tomas Pueyo’s most recent Substack to your attention. In it he documents a distressing claim: the UK, Europe, and Canada are abandoning freedom of speech. His evidence is pretty convincing.
For decades I’ve been pointing out that we in the United States are operating under a delusion if we think that rights that we take very seriously are universal. Those include freedom of speech and of the press.
It is also true that rights considered fundamental in other countries are, shall we say, considered otherwise here. For example, in the UK there is a “right to cross the land” enshrined in Magna Carta. Here we call it “trespassing”.
In yet other countries establishing a church is an article of faith.
The key point is that other countries are different from us. That should be obvious but, apparently, is not.
My favorite example is a British Appellant Court stating the right to confront accusers is “antediluvian” when admitting a letter from the deceased victim as evidence.
However, this won’t (and shouldn’t) stop folks from trying to turn us into a model Westminster style government.
walt moffet: My favorite example is a British Appellant Court stating the right to confront accusers is “antediluvian” when admitting a letter from the deceased victim as evidence.
The right to confront accusers is a fundamental of common law, recently affirmed in R v Davis (House of Lords, 2008). There are well-established exceptions, such as deathbed testimony. Do you have a particular case?
Our freedom of speech is also fading. Any news agency or journalist who says something Trump doesnt like gets sued, subpoenaed or charged for some nonsense by the DOJ. To date, none have succeeded in court but they act as SLAP suits.
Steve
Zachriel, can’t find the judgement in the UK court system. Maybe I confabulated, misremembered or the gopher hole I found it thru no longer exists.
Jefferson’s Alien and Sedition Acts, Wilson’s prosecution of Debs for encouraging draft dodging, the small town reporter barred from a public meeting, there is always tension tween the press and the leaders.