In February 2025, U.S. Vice President, JD Vance stood before the Munich Security Conference and delivered a stark warning. Europe’s greatest threat was not external aggression, but internal decay — specifically, the erosion of free speech.
At the time, his words were met with scorn from European elites, dismissed as populist provocation — even “misinformation”. Yet, just months later, the cultural tide is turning. The May 2025 edition of the Economist is entirely devoted to exposing Europe’s censorship crisis, with the cover piece subtitled “J.D. Vance was right”. Key members of the UK’s previous Conservative government, responsible for implementing various censorship laws in Britain, have now found a voice to call for free speech. In a few short months, the zeitgeist has shifted: we now see that Vance’s critique was not only timely, but prescient.
Vance highlighted the case of Adam Smith-Connor, a British army veteran convicted for the “crime” of silently praying near an abortion facility in Bournemouth. Smith-Connor stood alone, for 3 minutes, across a road from the facility in a green public space — prayerfully remembering a child he had lost through abortion. He obstructed no one, spoke to no one, yet was prosecuted under a “buffer zone” law designed to prevent harassment, abuse, and “expressions of approval or disapproval” of abortion within the large public area. He was sentenced to a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £9,000 in prosecution costs.
This case is not isolated. Livia Tossici-Bolt, also from Bournemouth, was convicted for offering consensual conversations near an abortion facility. Her “crime”? Holding a sign reading “here to talk, if you want” in the area. Inviting consensual conversation. She was ordered to pay £20,000 in prosecution costs.
Similar cases have arisen in Birmingham and in Scotland, where citizens have been prosecuted just for holding a certain point of view on abortion near a clinic or hospital, and either praying, or simply being willing to talk if someone wants to engage with them.
Vance’s speech, derided by European elites at the time, resonates with a public that is increasingly frustrated with their taxes going towards silencing themselves. In a country facing over 50,000 knife crime incidents per year, a 30% increase year-on-year of shoplifting, and a rape being recorded in our capital city every hour – it’s no wonder frustrations are rising about police resourcing being focused on silent prayers, or on foolish tweets, or having “very Brexitythings” in one’s reading material — as per the viral video of a police raid of an elderly gentleman’s home in Kent recently. In 2023, while real crime ran rampant, 12,000 British citizens were arrested for online posts.
The cultural shift against cancel culture and in favor of free speech is gaining momentum. The press coverage of the silent prayer convictions galvanised resistance. The image of Lucy Connelly cradling her daughter — a child now growing up without a mother while Lucy sits behind bars for 2 years due to a thoughtless tweet, since apologised for — sparked outrage. We’re seeing the real-life ramifications of a censorial, authoritarian culture in the lives of ordinary, everyday people. And it’s not the kind of society we want to support.
As the UK grapples with the balance between faux “safety” and safeguarding freedoms, Vance’s words serve as a reminder to governments that the people are not the enemy. “To believe in democracy is to understand that each of our citizens has wisdom and has a voice. And if we refuse to listen to that voice, even our most successful fights will secure very little.”
Britain now has an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to the principles of free expression and individual conscience. The tide is turning, and with it
