• Flax@feddit.uk
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    23 hours ago

    Did the UK ever have freedom of expression? I think it was just a societal custom. The BBC has always been censored, speaking out against the King was treason, etc.

    I think the tories granted kier these powers also.

    • Hector@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Yeah I mean the 17th century when France and the rest of the continent was heavily censored books were printed freely in the UK and people had a lot of rights to criticize whatever they wanted to a degree. England had always had a higher degree of freedom in many respects.

      • Tenebris Nox@feddit.uk
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        19 hours ago

        Wasn’t it an imprisonable offence for anyone to voice favourable opinions about the French Revolution or be in possession of republican literature at the end of the 19th Century in UK?

        • Hector@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          Sure it might have been technically, they were not on the ball at all though, in reality you can do what you wanted and you would be very very unlucky if you got caught by one of the few authorities.

          Generally speaking though they had a lot more freedom for a lot longer than anyone else on the continent, that is especially true during the years that the philosophes battled the religion and won. Voltaire and the like.

          • Tenebris Nox@feddit.uk
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            5 hours ago

            I’m not so sure. It was a pretty reactionary period in Britain with harsh laws that prevented assemblies of more than 50 people, anti-union activities and a serious curtailment of freedoms that were put into law (The Treasonable Practices Act (1795), The Combinations Acts (1795-1800) and the suspension of Habeas Corpus (1798-1801). Anyone considered radical was rounded up and threatened - sometimes physically. Even poor old William Blake was arrested.