Trump is giving us a taste of our own medicine

It seems the US State Department sees an impediment to free speech as an impediment to free trade with Britain. It cites the recent incident in which a woman, Livia Tossici-Bolt, was arrested for holding up a sign as she prayed alone and silently near a Bournemouth abortion clinic. It says it is ‘monitoring’ the case. Many here will dismiss this intrusion as a typically loopy product of the Trump era. In a sense, it is. It is also a spurious justification for American tariffs which are happening anyway. But it should teach us something about how others see us. It is commonplace for British governments of both parties to object to the policies of other countries, notably in the Middle East and Africa, in relation to LGBT+ rights. Our politicians let these objections affect other subjects, such as sporting or commercial links. This causes offence in those countries as being both contrary to their moral code and none of our business. Trumpery is giving us a taste of our own medicine. It seems obvious to virtually all Labour MPs and some Tory ones that abortion is a social benefit, and so, ignoring free speech issues, they penalise public prayer against it. But it is not obvious to everyone, everywhere. Hundreds of millions of people, including perhaps a third of Americans (and even significant numbers here), think abortion is wrong. We arrest one woman for silent prayer but allow many thousands of Hamas sympathisers to march repeatedly, shouting their hatred of Jews in the streets on London. Are we any less weird in our way than the Trumpians are in theirs?