(Free Beacon)—The “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States has often been a rocky one—as it is now. In spite of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s workmanlike efforts to get on President Trump’s good side, London and Washington have frequently been at odds this year. There was an Oval Office confrontation over British restrictions on free speech, and the Pentagon’s review of the AUKUS high technology and submarine agreement may cause an even more serious rupture.
This has led to confusion on the other side of the pond. One prominent Briton questioned why the White House has criticized London more than it has other, more transgressive countries. Trump is personally fond of Great Britain and the royal family, but this affection only goes so far. He and his movement see in the mother country precisely the sort of problems they fear most and are determined to head off.
The scandal Defense Secretary John Healey revealed in Parliament this week is a case in point: In February 2022, a Royal Marine inadvertently exposed information about roughly 25,000 Afghans who had worked with the British government. Parts of that list appeared on Facebook, and as the danger mounted, the government helped them and their families reach safety in Britain.
This was the right course to take, but the attempt to cover it up was not. The government issued a “super injunction” that prohibited journalists and parliamentarians from asking questions about the debacle or speaking openly about it for nearly two years. The judge who reviewed and ultimately struck it down asked, “Am I going bonkers?” when he learned about the £7 billion cost for resettlement. This enforced secrecy had no point: A senior Taliban official told the Telegraph, “we got the list from the internet during the very first days when it was leaked.”
The scandal exposed one of the most pernicious problems in British society: the government’s increasing fondness for censorship. Earlier this year, a grandmother was arrested for standing outside an abortion provider holding a sign that said, “coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” Another woman was sentenced to 31 months in prison for an intemperate and profane social media post shortly after a jihadist—an actual menace to society—stabbed to death three young girls.
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