In May 2023 Charles and his wife, Camilla, were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom at a service in Westminster Abbey. The event drew people from across the globe and was watched by millions worldwide. In front of the Archbishop of Canterbury and more than 100 heads of state, holy oil was put on the King’s head, and he took an oath. Thousands of people took to the streets to see the UK’s first coronation in 70 years.

Present were also vocal members of the public who felt strongly about taxpayers having to foot the bill for the excessive cost of the King’s coronation – especially amid the cost-of-living crisis in the UK, and strikes by doctors, teachers, and other public officials over pay. Other activists held protests on the day too.

It is worth noting that criticising or speaking out against the monarchy is not forbidden, yet protesters against the monarchy were aggressively arrested by London metropolitan police, raising concerns about the government’s protection of free expression.

Britain has a history of both monarchy and free speech. Those who defend Britain’s constitutional monarchy say it doesn’t hurt free speech in any significant way. However, at King Charles’ coronation, the two collided, proving that England’s picturesque royal tradition isn’t nearly as benign as it’s made out to be.

According to The Independent, the Metropolitan Police released 32 people who had initially been arrested “on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance,” which calls into question how loosely the Police are utilising their new anti-protest powers. Their new powers were never claimed to ban free speech, like when someone waves a poster reading “NOT MY KING” or “JUST STOP OIL.” Yet 20 members of the group “Just Stop Oil” were arrested for doing nothing more than that.

Kush Naker, 33, a doctor of infectious diseases from London who was arrested, said, “I never thought in my life that I would be terrified that the police might arrest me for protesting peacefully in the UK But that is now the state we are in”.

Since 2022, protestors in England could be arrested for planning to cause a “public nuisance”. The Conservative administration responded to Black Lives Matter and other street rallies by giving police more tools to suppress protests. Under the old laws, police needed to demonstrate that failing to arrest a demonstrator could lead to “serious public disorder, serious damage to property, or serious disruption to the life of the community,” but under the new laws all they need to show is that a protester is “intentionally causing public nuisance”. This was sold as a “simplification” of criminal law, but what it did was make it easier to stop people from dissenting against government policies in a way that effectively grabs attention.

These were just protests, and the public has every right to protest. Free speech is always pushed forth as an important part of the British way of life, but in fact the UK government limits freedom of speech. When those limits are extended to silence valid political opinions and peaceful ways to protest, the road to authoritarianism gets shorter and shorter.

In essence, almost entirely right-wing media in England and the government that runs the country only value views that agree with their ideology. Anything outside that realm is susceptible to arrests, prison, or risks of being reported to government counter-terrorism strategies.