Vance criticises Britain: is this a new era for free speech?

Americano

The Spectator

Politics, News, News Commentary

4 • 714 Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The fallout continues from US vice-president J.D. Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference. Criticising Europe over what he sees as the retreat of free speech, he singled out the case of Adam Smith-Connor in the UK as something that worries him about the direction that Britain is heading in. Smith-Connor was arrested in 2022 and prosecuted for breaching an abortion buffer-zone in Bournemouth.

Freddy Gray speaks to Paul Coleman at the ARC conference in London. Paul is executive director of ADF International, a faith-based legal advocacy organisation that has been advocating for Smith-Connor. What is the truth behind abortion buffer-zones? Is this part of a wider 'censorship industrial complex'? And does Vance's criticism signal a new era of free speech?

Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we begin this podcast, I'd like to tell you about a special deal.
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0:34.4	Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics, power, and prejudices.
0:41.1	It is 2025 and Donald Trump is president once again of the United States.
0:46.6	We will, of course, be following the moves of the Donald's and his second administration very closely. However, it won't just be politics for us this year. We'll also talk a lot and cover
0:52.6	American culture, life and the arts.
0:56.7	I should also remind you, because my producer Natasha will not let me hear the end of it,
1:01.5	that we are on Spectator TV. So head to our YouTube channel to watch that.
1:21.3	Hello and welcome to the Americano show here at the ARC conference, the Excel Centre in London.
1:27.2	I am delighted to be joined by Paul Coleman, who is executive director of ADF International, and you have something to talk to us about,
1:30.7	which relates to J.D. Vance's speech on Friday. And what I worry about is the threat from within.
1:38.5	The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.
1:47.6	And perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom,
1:52.4	where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious
1:56.8	Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs. A little over two years ago, the British government charged
2:03.3	Adam Smith Connor, a 51 year old physiotherapist and an army veteran,
2:08.5	with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic
2:15.0	and silently praying for three minutes.
2:18.3	Not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own.
2:24.3	After British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for,
2:29.3	Adam replied simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before.
	...

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