We have allowed politically-correct lobbyists to shackle our minds

Sadly we still have many examples of modern slavery within our United Kingdom. Women, held against their will are forced to work as prostitutes by their slave masters. Drug addicts – many of them teenagers – are forced to be drug mules by their masters and live under the threat of physical punishment if they resist.

The list could go on.

However, alongside the current forms of modern physical slavery there is another mode of slavery which has gripped the UK.

It has restricted the free-speech which once underpinned the liberty of our nation.

This slavery has many slave masters, some of them children. They are indoctrinating our children and grandchildren to be obedient.

I have in mind organisations focussing on climate change, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues), Black Lives Matter, and feminist lobby groups.

This is mental slavery.

They declare that if you don’t think what they think, you are a despicable human being. In fact you are less than human, and your beliefs don’t matter.

They have an unchallenged monopoly about what is true and what is acceptable, even in the face of science.

You must subscribe to their doctrine of beliefs and be proactive in advancing it.

If you seek to resist, they will make your life miserable. They will come after you and your family. They will target you at home. They will report you to your employer and demand your dismissal.

They will ensure that others watching will not dare speak out for fear of suffering the same reprisals. There is no mercy.

The government has bowed before them and adopted their policies, even when it flies in the face of common sense.

If a political party were to speak out against these new norms, they would find themselves labelled as extremists.

Multinational corporations have been forced to support their agendas, and they have poured out millions of pounds in the hope they will not publicly denounce them and ruin their business.

The small business owner, who has dared to resist them, has found themselves dragged before the courts. Many businesses have suffered and closed as a result.

The church is slowly being silenced. Blamed for everything that is wrong with society, the slave masters want to see the church conform to their manifestos or close. Many in Christendom have capitulated.

There is no neutral ground. You must support the new slaves masters. Free speech is forbidden. Liberty of conscience annulled.

Democracy is on their terms.

Rev Craig Dennison, Minister of the Free Presbyterian Church, Laurelvale, Co Armagh