The Return of Blasphemy Laws?

Over my many years in the U.S., I have resisted the temptation to buy into the catastrophism that characterizes American conservative commentary on my homeland, from claims about NHS “death panels” to the takeover of British cities by radical Muslims intent on imposing sharia law. I grew up in rural Gloucestershire where nothing much changes, from the appropriately warm beer served in the pubs to the faces passed in the streetlight-free lanes. There is little fodder there for sensationalist headlines about the death of England. But recent months have made it harder not to think that something has gone badly awry with this sceptered isle. From the ridiculous yet sinister arrest of Graham Linehan to the refusal to allow a Catholic group to film at a holy site, the England that I knew is passing. Ideas and beliefs that were part of the fabric of the culture until the day before yesterday are now consistently rooted out, opposed, and repudiated with the full force of the cultural establishment. And this is often done under the guise of doing the exact opposite. The language of tolerance is used to promote intolerance, freedom to promote oppression, kindness to justify cruelty.