Where are we heading as a society? Is the UK still a liberal country? You might think that even asking such questions is a form of hyperbole.

It's the kind of thing the left always says. The UK is, after all, a country with a deep

tradition of liberalism, and such things are not dismantled easily. But with the seemingly

indefinite expansion of terrorism legislation, the ongoing

attack on jury trials in which you can give context for your actions, the suppression of bank accounts

for pro-Palestinian organisations, and the failure of the court system to restrict shipments

of parts for warplanes involved in war crimes

in Gaza, it's not an unreasonable question. So where are we going? Not a fascism, not a police

state, those are clearly going too far, but it's possible that we are decisively now exiting the form of liberal government

that we've grown used to. The point of liberalism has always been to constrain the state.

To say that despite its immense power, it should not be able to do exactly what it wants.

It should obey its own laws. It should be beholden to

international law and to public opinion. They've always been part of the state that sit outside

them, the Secret Services, for instance. And through the war on terror, the supposed imperatives of

national security slowly corroded oversight of these parts.

And now something much more dramatic has happened, in full view of everyone.

From the 5th of July, 2025, it became a terrorist defence, to be a member of or to support

Palestine action.

But it's also an offence to speak in a way that is reckless about them,

to speak in a way that might lead someone else to support them.

That's a huge grey area.

We just don't know what we can and we can't say.

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