For some time, I have been watching Britain from across the pond and asking a question I never expected to ask about one of America’s closest allies: what is happening to free speech?

Recent news gave me another reason to ask it. 

A new report from civil liberties group Big Brother Watch found that at least 62,199 people have been arrested in Britain over the past five years for communications offenses. Of those, 18,510 were charged and 12,292 convicted.

Of course, some communications offenses are serious. Threats, harassment and abuse can cause real harm, and the law has a legitimate role in dealing with them.

But that cannot explain away the bigger question raised by these figures: how did the country that gave so much of the world its understanding of liberty reach the point where tens of thousands of people are being arrested over things communicated from behind a keyboard or through a phone?

This week, I’m visiting the UK to get some answers for an upcoming podcast series: “Has Britain Lost Its Common Sense?”

Free speech is only part of the question. Britain is also undergoing a profound religious and cultural transformation. Christianity, once woven deeply into the country's institutions and identity, has declined as secularism and other faiths have grown. I want to understand whether those changes have affected how Britain now thinks about liberty, tolerance and dissent.

I........

© Townhall