Incitement to Disaffection Act 1934

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The Incitement to Disaffection Act 1934 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made it an offence to seduce a servicemen from his "duty or his allegiance", thus expanding the ambit of the law. The Act was widely criticized as being an unnecessary restriction on freedom of speech.

According to ^[1], the most powerful incitement to disaffection was made in the 1987 election campaign by the Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, who announced that service chiefs should consider resigning in protest if the Labour party were elected and sought to implement its non-nuclear policy.

1. ^ G Robertson "Freedom, the Individual and the Law", Penguin Books (1993, 7th ed, ISBN 0-14-017264-5) p 210, as cited in Select Committee on Religious Offences in England and Wales First Report, Chapter 6 [1]