Latest news with #LiviaTossiciBolt
Russia Today
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
US interfering in UK's internal affairs
US officials recently travelled to the UK to meet with local anti-abortion campaigners who Washington believes face retribution for expressing their views, The Telegraph reported on Saturday. The paper described the move as evidence of Washington's desire to 'intervene in domestic British affairs.' In March, the State Department dispatched a delegation from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), to meet with officials from the Foreign Office and communications regulator Ofcom to 'affirm the importance of freedom of expression in the UK and across Europe.' The talks, which also overlapped with separate UK-US trade negotiations, focused on Britain's new online safety act and its potential consequences for freedom of speech. However, the five-member US team also quietly met with British activists who had been arrested for protesting outside abortion clinics, the article said. The US officials also reportedly attended an event held at a 'nondescript' office block where campaigners were present. 'The visit is the latest sign of the Trump administration's willingness to intervene in domestic British affairs,' The Telegraph noted. While the paper did not provide details on whom the US officials met, Washington has sounded the alarm over several controversial cases where the right to free speech in the UK may have been violated. One of them was that of Livia Tossici-Bolt, a 64-year-old campaigner who was charged in 2023 for holding a sign reading 'here to talk if you want' outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth. She refused to leave when asked by police and faced prosecution under a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) – a legal restriction that creates a 150-meter buffer zone around facilities providing abortion services. In February, US Vice President J.D. Vance also singled out the case of Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old British army veteran and anti-abortion activist, who was convicted in October 2024 for silently praying near the same Bournemouth clinic. Vance called it a 'most concerning case' and said it illustrated the threats to the 'basic liberties of religious Britons.' UK law enforcement has been criticized for so-called 'two-tier policing,' a term suggesting that much harsher measures are often taken against right-wing protesters than against left-wing ones. Elon Musk, a close Trump ally, has been particularly vocal on the matter, blasting the UK over its response to what he described as a disproportionate response to anti-immigration demonstrations.
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Lucy Connolly case raised with White House
Police officers who searched her devices found other posts she had written. In one message, she joked that she would 'play the mental health card' if arrested. Connolly, who has no previous convictions, also sent another tweet commenting on a sword attack, which read: 'I bet my house it was one of these boat invaders.' The Court of Appeal judges said they did not accept that the original 31-month sentence was 'manifestly excessive'. The judges also said they did not accept that Connolly had entered her guilty plea without fully understanding what it entailed. The intervention comes as Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, has been forced to defend Britain's record of free speech which has become a point of tension with Trump administration officials. During a firebrand speech at the Munich security conference, JD Vance, the vice-president claimed 'free speech in Britain and across Europe was in retreat'. In a highly unusual step earlier this year, the US state department issued a statement saying it was 'concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom' in relation to the case of an anti-abortion campaigner. It said it was 'monitoring' the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, who was prosecuted for holding a sign near a Bournemouth abortion clinic reading: 'Here to talk if you want.'
