Is Britain really the new North Korea? Let us consider the evidence | Martin Kettle

"Tell me, fellow Brits, how are you getting used to our island version of North Korea? How are you coping with life, now that we are a global pariah alongside Pyongyang? How do you feel about modern Britain having to vie with North Korea, Myanmar and Afghanistan for the wooden spoon on every international index of oppression? For that is the country Wednesday's Daily Mail front page insists we have now become."

"It is tempting to laugh off a headline that asks When did Britain become North Korea? as just another here-today-gone-tomorrow piece of journalistic hyperbole. That's even more the case when you read the cobbled-up pandemonium of provocations that form the contents of the headline-writer's charge that Britain is being strong-armed into Starmer's socialist utopia nervy bond markets, the possibility of compulsory ID cards, the arrest of the Father Ted writer for his tweets and, of course, Angela Rayner."

"The plain fact is that this list simply does not compare with North Korea's place near the top of the global slavery index or at the foot of the international index of economic freedom. Some actions of the British state are undoubtedly annoying and wrong even sometimes iniquitous. But there is still a gulf between the charge sheet and what Amnesty International calls the North Korean state's untrammelled ability to exercise total control over all aspects of life."

British media and some commentators increasingly liken UK political developments to totalitarian regimes, using hyperbolic language and provocative front pages. Specific grievances cited include market volatility, proposals for ID cards, arrests over social media, and political figures. These comparisons ignore vast differences between British governance and regimes with pervasive state control, slavery indices, and economic repression. The sensationalism intensifies political polarisation and pressures governments into hasty, poorly designed legislation. Both traditional and new media amplify fears, incentivising punitive or performative policymaking in response to manageable issues rather than proportionate solutions.

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