 What is freedom? What do we mean by it? And more importantly, do we have it? The concept of freedom can be a difficult one. For me, it means the liberty to live one's life in the way that suits them best, limited only by other people's ability to do the same. In order to live freely in this way, people must make sure that politicians cannot impose laws or restrictions that remove their freedoms. Now this is where the notion of civil liberties come to the fore. To prevent politicians limiting our freedoms, we must have the ability to hold politicians to account. Our right to protest, for example, is therefore absolutely crucial. Our right to free speech is absolutely crucial. Free, open, democratic debate is an indisputable necessity if our ability to hold politicians to account is to be maintained. In other words, if we don't hold power over politicians, they will take our power away. Now in 2021, do we have those freedoms in the UK? Do we have the right to speak freely? Do we have the right to protest and hold the government to account? I'm sorry to say, no, we don't. The evidence for this is all around us, but before I explain what this evidence is, let me remind you of our past. Our freedoms, our civil liberties are largely spoken of in terms of the Magna Carta. This document, devised in the year 1215, is largely believed to have introduced concepts like swift access to justice, the right to not be arbitrarily imprisoned or imprisoned on the whim of the powerful. Later came the Bill of Rights. This bill outlined specific constitutional and civil rights and ultimately gave Parliament power over the monarchy. Parliament having power over the monarchy was key because Parliament was seen as representative of the people. In other words, it gave the people power over the powerful. The Bill of Rights laid out some key concepts of freedom. The freedom to elect members of Parliament without the monarch's interference, freedom of speech in Parliament, freedom from royal interference with the law, freedom to petition the King, freedom to bear arms for self-defense, freedom from cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail, freedom from taxation by royal prerogative without the agreement of Parliament. The Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights both inspired the US Constitution and expanded notions and concepts of freedom throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. These documents carry little legal weight in the UK today. Most have been replaced by modern legislation. One such piece of legislation apparently designed to protect our rights is the Human Rights Act of 1998. This act brought the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights into British law. The legislation was supposed to protect various rights, but in practice it has done nothing of the kind. It was supposed to protect our freedom of speech, but the truth is in the UK we have no freedom of speech. The concept of so-called hate speech is reality in British law. This allows the government and the courts to limit our speech in accordance with a vague concept of hate. The Public Order Act, for example, prohibits expressions of racial hatred, which is defined as hatred against a group of persons by reason of the group's colour, race, nationality or ethnic or national origins. Section 18 of the Act says, a person who uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting, is guilty of an offence if he intends thereby to stir up racial hatred or having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby. Now what does this mean exactly? We're not sure because the word hatred is never defined. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 prohibits anyone from causing alarm or distress. It states, a person is guilty of an offence if, with intent to cause a person harassment, alarm or distress, he uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour, or displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting, thereby causing that or another person harassment, alarm or distress. Again, what does this mean? Again, we're not sure because alarm or distress is not defined. The Racial and Religious Hatred Act extended protections to religion. It states that a person who uses threatening words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, is guilty of an offence if he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred. Once again, hatred is not defined. The problem with this lack of clear definition is that words like hate, distress or alarm are left to the interpretation of the courts and the police who can interpret them to mean anything that political correctness requires. These laws are vague enough to mean that any speech critical of mass immigration or of Islam or of self-identification, transgenderism, can be deemed to be hate or to cause alarm or distress. Now make no mistake, hate speech laws are intended to limit our freedom of speech and force us to accept policy that we would otherwise not accept. We have therefore lost our fundamental right to free speech. People have been arrested, jailed, demonised, destroyed merely for speaking. Free speech is over in Britain, but we can get it back. For Britain will repeal all hate speech laws. For Britain would create a constitution that guarantees our freedom of speech. As it stands, only Parliament can protect our rights. So what happens when we are required to protect our rights from Parliament? We need a constitution that limits the powers of Parliament to remove our right to speak. That is what For Britain is offering. In late 2019 the world changed. A virus was spreading all over the world. Now that virus would alter everything. Originating in China, COVID-19 was like wildfire. The virus threatened the lives of the elderly or those already suffering from chronic conditions. And in early 2020 the unbelievable happened. Governments throughout the world including in the UK locked the population inside our homes and closed down all businesses. Our loss of freedom was absolute. We were prisoners at our government's behest. So severe was this that police ordered people inside their houses even from their own gardens. Police threatened to search our shopping trolleys to make sure we were buying only permitted items. The Coronavirus Act gave the government unimaginable power over us. It gave the government the power to quarantine us, to jail us, to keep us away from our families, to determine where we may gather and in what numbers. It was a stark lesson. If the government deems it appropriate it can imprison us. It's a lesson we are not likely to forget anytime soon. Needless to say the Coronavirus Act prevented us from protesting against the Coronavirus Act. The Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill of 2021 severely restricts our right to protest. Not just during Coronavirus lockdown but permanently. This bill provides for the following. It will widen the range of conditions that the police can impose on assemblies. To match existing police powers to impose conditions on processions. It will lower the fault element for offenses related to the breaching of conditions placed on a protest. It will widen the range of circumstances in which the police can impose conditions on protests. It will replace the existing common law offence of public nuisance with a new statutory offence as recommended by Law Commission in 2015. It will create new stop search and seizure powers to prevent serious disruption by protests. In other words, this legislation creates a formal police state. The police will decide who can protest and how they can protest. That's no longer our decision to make. Those in authority will determine what protests we may have against those in authority. Britain is not a free country. It was, it is no longer. Powers and freedoms once they are seized are not returned voluntarily. Therefore it is incumbent upon us to demand the restoration of our rights. We must do so and we must do so with urgency. For Britain will restore our freedoms. All we need is your support. Visit forbritain.uk and join us. Because if we do not fight back and demand our power is restored, it will disappear forever.