Three days ago I ordered a book from Amazon UK, to be sent to me here in Stockholm. The transaction went through, and I was promised delivery on 6th February. This morning however I received a message informing me that the package had been ‘delayed at Customs’, and was being ‘processed by Customs officials.’ (Whose customs officials? British or Swedish? It wasn’t made clear.)

The message continued: ‘UPS may require additional information from you.’ It also provided a link for ‘More info’, which however merely told me of ‘Products related to items in your shipment’. The main ones cited there were Palestinian flag badges. The only connexion between these and the book I had ordered was that the latter was about the so-called ‘weaponising of Anti-Semitism’, in order to undermine the then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who of course is a champion of the Palestinian cause. I’ve written about that issue on this blog before (e.g. https://bernardjporter.com/2020/02/22/the-jacobin-and-the-anti-semitic-scandal/). I still feel pretty cross about it. Hence my interest in the book.

It’s by Asa Winstanley. It purports to be based on solid research, and to be strictly factual. I obviously haven’t been able to read it yet, so can’t comment on its reliability. But it worries me that its shipment might have been delayed for political reasons; a form of censorship, in effect. Of course I may still receive it, with an apology, within the next few days. I’ll let you know if so.

I’ve asked around Facebook if any other ‘Brits in Sweden’ have experienced this sort of thing. Delays in UK-EU post have got much worse since Brexit. But as I understood it, this was simply in order to assess any import duties that might be owed. The ‘related items’ that Amazon (or UPS) have cited to me suggests that this is not the case here.