this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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UK Politics
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Yeah I mean the 17th century when France and the rest of the continent was heavily censored books were printed freely in the UK and people had a lot of rights to criticize whatever they wanted to a degree. England had always had a higher degree of freedom in many respects.
Wasn't it an imprisonable offence for anyone to voice favourable opinions about the French Revolution or be in possession of republican literature at the end of the 19th Century in UK?
Sure it might have been technically, they were not on the ball at all though, in reality you can do what you wanted and you would be very very unlucky if you got caught by one of the few authorities.
Generally speaking though they had a lot more freedom for a lot longer than anyone else on the continent, that is especially true during the years that the philosophes battled the religion and won. Voltaire and the like.