> The British Retail Consortium has said shoplifting is "out of control" after its annual crime survey found incidents of customer theft reported by retailers in the UK rose by 3.7 million to 20.4 million, and cost retailers £2bn.
Surely a moment's reflection on the state of the UK at the moment would offer some ideas about why this is.
Your example is the burning of a religious text, which is provocative enough to be scooped up, even if incorrectly, by hate speech laws. It's absurd to suggest proposing ideas about supermarket self-checkouts is anything like that, and it's also absurd to suggest the UK is the only country where people are wrongfully arrested – unless you're suggesting the USA has a healthier police system?
And if you want to throw evidence into a debate, you might want to choose a publication with a bit more standing than whatever random partisan blog this is.
Oh it is alright to destroy fundamental traditions that the English invented and fought for literally for millennia. That is fine. It only happens now and again!
There are numerous examples of the police in the UK arresting and prosecuting people for making simple statements of fact or giving their honest and reasonable opinions. It is not actually that rare.
It would if anything be better if it were more rigorously enforced, because it wouldn't last very long if it were. Instead, the threat of it looms over everyone.
Surely a moment's reflection on the state of the UK at the moment would offer some ideas about why this is.