Wilkes and Liberty

In the not so distant past English schoolchildren were taught a different history to the one they are taught now. For a start, Henry VIII was mentioned chiefly on account of his role in the Protestant Reformation, not his racy personal life.
Fifty years ago the English were a people, and England was the country where the English lived. The overwhelming majority of the population had ancestors who had lived here not just a hundred years ago, but a thousand years ago.
So, in that time,x the English people had developed a culture distinct, not just from the peoples of far continents, but from the people of Europe too. The history of that distinct people was celebrated.
English children were taught the differences between the English and the Europeans - representative government, Protestantism, toleration, and not least, free speech and the freedom of the press.
And so children were taught about Elizabeth I and the fight for survival against Continental Catholic tyranny,  the Civil War and the fight of Parliament against the despotism of Charles I, the Glorious Revolution and the establishment of limited monarchy, the Bill of Rights, Habaeus Corpus, the Act of Toleration, and the wars against the dictator Louis XIV of France.
Most English children also knew the name of John Wilkes, who 250 years ago today, published an article in the journal the North Briton that got him arrested.
King George III felt offended. Indeed, Wilkes was an offensive man, as well a very ugly man.
For offending the powerful, Wilkes was at various times arrested, declared an outlaw, imprisoned, fined, and expelled from Parliament. However, he kept on to the bitter end and helped establish the principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press which lasted to the beginning of the twenty-first century and the rise of the post Fascist New Labour and ConDem governments. 
Now, once again the press is regulated and people can be thrown into jail for expressing the wrong opinion.
People are guarded in expressing their views.
The United Kingdom enjoys a representative form of government. But if speech is censored, and free discussion is stifled, then, by its own terms, no election can be truly representative.
The government loses its legitimacy. It becomes a tyranny.