5 Feet of Fury

A must-read from Mark Steyn on the state of free speech in the West

Mark Steyn writes:

What really is the difference between Charlie Hebdo’s killers and Wiltshire Police? The anti-Charlie crowd made it clear years ago that they knew where the offending cartoonists were and one day they would get them. The Wiltshire Police are not so subtly telling Charlie’s English readers that they know where you are – just in case one day they need to get you…

You can get away with anything when you smother it in blather about “enhancing” public safety and “advising appropriately”. But the fact that remains that, a few days after the hideous opportunist Cameron was marching under the #JeSuisCharlie banner in Paris, his coppers were ordering newsagents to cough up the names of anyone who bought the magazine. This is Mother England in 2015: You can still read samizdat literature, but your name will be entered in a state database.