Concerns about free speech in the United Kingdom are growing as new laws surrounding speech, public protest, and religious criticism threaten to change the future of civil liberties — and activist Tommy Robinson, who has been on the wrong side of these laws already — is prepared to fight back.
“Their problem always has been that I always speak facts,” Robinson tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program.”
While there are strict laws against “incitement to hatred,” which Robinson has often been accused of, he points out that he’s just telling the truth.
“That’s what this law they’re now bringing in is about. They don’t want the public to be aware of facts or truth if you speak the truth about Islam. They want to limit what you can say, and that’s now what their new law intends to do,” he explains.
And Robinson doesn’t plan to stop speaking out about Islam anytime soon.
“This law won’t change anything I say. So if I’m honest, I will continue. I won’t limit my speech if I’m telling the truth. If that means I’ll end up in prosecutions, it means I will end up in prosecutions,” Robinson tells Glenn.
“Most of these laws are about instilling fear,” he continues, noting that the Labour government also intends to remove the jury service.
“What does that mean?” Glenn asks.
“You can be taken to court in the U.K., and if they drop it to a low charge, you do not get a jury,” Robinson explains.
“And that means they can only give you … 12 or 24 months,” he continues, noting that they’re now changing that.
“They’re changing it so you can get four years,” he says.
“So not only are they bringing in a law that prohibits you from telling the truth, they’re also … taking away your ability to be tried by 12 members of the public. You’ll just be tried by a judge,” he explains.
Robinson’s last prison sentence, he tells Glenn, was 18 months in jail for making a film called “Silence.”
“That film was 100% factual. No one has argued with any of the facts I’ve presented in that film, or the judge didn’t have a problem with the facts I presented in the film. Just the fact that I showed the public the film,” he says.
“If I was able to have a jury to let the jury decide, I believe I’d never have gone to jail once. But I’ve never been given the opportunity to have a jury,” he adds.
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