Thoughtcrime is now an arrestable offence in the UK.
No, this is not hyperbole. It’s not even a slight exaggeration: it’s literally what happened.
A charity volunteer has been arrested and charged on four counts after she told the police she “might” be praying silently, when questioned as to why she was standing on a public street near an abortion facility.
Police approached Isabel Vaughan-Spruce standing near the BPAS Robert Clinic in Kings Norton, Birmingham. Vaughan-Spruce was carrying no sign and remained completely silent until approached by officers. Police had received complaints from an onlooker who suspected that Vaughan-Spruce was praying silently in her mind.
Mark that: suspected that Vaughan-Spruce was praying silently in her mind. In a word: thinking.
She was arrested because of what she might have been thinking.
This is simply astonishing — and terrifying.
“It’s abhorrently wrong that I was searched, arrested, interrogated by police and charged simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind. Censorship zones purport to ban harassment, which is already illegal. Nobody should ever be subject to harassment. But what I did was the furthest thing from harmful – I was exercising my freedom of thought, my freedom of religion, inside the privacy of my own mind. Nobody should be criminalised for thinking and for praying, in a public space in the UK,” said Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, following her arrest for silent prayer.
Now, I’m not buying into the rights or wrongs of abortion — because it doesn’t matter. No matter what your opinion on abortion, the very idea that someone could be arrested for thinking “wrong” thoughts about anything is intolerable.
But even the law under which Vaughan-Spruce was purportedly arrested is self-contradictory and arbitrary.
The censorship zone measure introduced by Birmingham authorities criminalises individuals percieved to be “engaging in any act of approval or disapproval or attempted act of approval or disapproval” in relation to abortion, including through “verbal or written means, prayer or counselling…”.
Approval or disapproval.
Doesn’t this then mean that if you encourage someone to get an abortion — which, ipso facto, you are clearly doing if you accompany someone to an abortion clinic, perform an abortion, or get an abortion — you are engaging in an act of approval in relation to abortion? And thereby breaking the “censorship zone” law?
This is the authoritarian nonsense you end up with, whenever you start curtailing free speech.
Naturally, Britain’s authoritarian political establishment is in love with the idea.
In Westminster, parliamentarians are considering legislation to introduce censorship zones in England and Wales. Clause 9 of the Public Order Bill, currently under parliamentary debate, would prohibit pro-life volunteers from “influencing”, “advising”, “persuading”, “informing”, “occupying space” or even “expressing opinion” within the vicinity of an abortion facility.
Those who breach the rules could face up to two years in prison.
A 2018 government review into the work of pro-life volunteers outside of abortion facilities found that instances of harassment are rare, and police already have powers to prosecute individuals engaging in such activities. The most common activities of pro-life groups were found to be quiet or silent prayer, or offering leaflets about charitable support available to women who would like to consider alternative options to abortion.
ADF UK
Orwell would be turning in his grave.