There’ll Always Be an England—But Will It Be Free? › American Greatness
Roger Kimball
Sitting here in London, I wonder what Ross Parker and Hughie Charles would think if they could join me for a pint. I suspect that the authors of the famous 1939 song “There’ll Always Be An England” would be puzzled, not to say alarmed, over some recent developments in this green and pleasant land.
“There’ll always be an England,” these songsters wrote, “and England shall be free/if England means as much to you/as England means to me.”
But the question is, does it? Does England mean as much to the ruling establishment as it once did? The words “free” and “freedom” are repeated several times in “There’ll Always Be An England.” That’s the theme, the hope, the conviction: that Britain would triumph because of its native love of freedom.
How do things look now? Let me introduce you to two recent developments that would have astonished Messrs. Parker and Charles—police tracking of “non-crime hate incidents” and a so-called “banter ban” that is on the threshold of becoming the law of the land.
The practice of recording “non-crime hate incidents” by the police became law in June 2023. Ponder this:
Where there is no criminal offence, but the person reporting perceives that the incident was motivated wholly or partially by hostility, the incident will be recorded as a non-crime hate incident. Police officers may also identify a non-crime hate incident, even where no victim or witness has done so.
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https://amgreatness.com/2025/07/20/therell-always-be-an-england-but-will-it-be-free/
