It has been the most authoritarian country in the West for decades already, this is nothing new.
British people are the most apathetic people in the world, so it's really easy to abuse them.
Australia and the US are more authoritarian in specific areas e.g. censorship and taxation respectively.. but overall, yes, the UK is worse.
>British people are the most apathetic
I'm not sure that's fair, our culture looks apathetic from abroad, but like other countries we care deeply about what our media tell us to care about.
I live in the UK, and have lived in multiple other western countries before.
British people absolutely ARE apathetic.