And as the sun sets on British freedom of speech
Britain never had an especially robust tradition of free speech; certainly nothing to compare with that of the US. So it doesn’t come as a complete shock that Britain has been cracking down on what it defines as “hate speech” and “incitement,” and has arrested a comedian for his tweets.
I confess: I’ve never before heard of Graham Linehan, a British comedian who was arrested yesterday over three anti-trans tweets. Here is his description of the event, plus the offending tweets:
I was arrested for messages on X when I haven’t even been banned from X. The tweets are not my best work but they are completely harmless. I’m furious about what is happening to women in the UK and I despise trans activists because I think they are homophobic and misogynist…. I was arrested at an airport like a terrorist, locked in a cell like a criminal, taken to hospital because the stress nearly killed me and banned from speaking online — all because I made jokes that upset some psychotic crossdressers. To me, this proves one thing beyond doubt: the UK has become a country that is hostile to freedom of speech, hostile to women and far too accommodating to the demands of violent, entitled, abusive men who have turned the police into their personal goon squad.” …
[The tweets]
1. “If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and, if all else fails, punch him in the balls.”2. (about a photo of a trans rally) “A photo you can smell.”
3. (again about the photo) “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.
I assume Linehan is correct that this is not his best comedy work. But then again, bad comedy is neither a felony nor even a misdemeanor. It seems to me that it’s that first tweet that got the authorities going, and indeed I see that he was arrested for inciting violence rather than “mere” hate speech.
Linehan said in an online article on Substack that his bail condition stipulates he is “not to go on Twitter” …
… [D]uring his police interview following the arrest, “I explained that the ‘punch’ tweet was a serious point made with a joke”, and that it was about “the height difference between men and women… and certainly not a call to violence”.
In the US, the crime of incitement has several elements that Linehan’s tweet lacks: “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.” Neither element is present; there is no “imminence” and his speech is not likely to produce such action. But he wasn’t arrested in the US, and Britain is different. Plus, in the US:
Mere advocacy of lawbreaking or violence remains protected speech as long as it is not intended to and likely to provoke immediate unlawful action.
Britain has some very twisted priorities about whom to arrest and for what reason. I’m in agreement with this statement:
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch was critical of the arrest, saying: “Sending five officers to arrest a man for a tweet isn’t policing, it’s politics. Under Labour, we routinely see burglary, knife crime and assaults go unsolved, while resources are wasted on thought-policing.
“It’s time this government told the police their job is to protect the public, not monitor social media for hurty words. The Conservatives would stop this nonsense on day one and make public safety the first duty of policing, instead of pandering to fringe ideologies.
Ah, but the left believes speech is violence (if directed against one of their favored groups), and violence is mere speech (if committed by one of their favored groups).
Graham Linehan’s best work is “Father Ted”. It’s sort of an absurdist, at times even slightly surreal TV comedy about an Irish Priest of a parish on a small fictional island off the cost of Ireland. It’s been compared to Faulty Towers. It’s has some brilliant moments like the “I hear you’re a racist now, father!” moment.
Re: Father Ted
Nonapod:
Hear, hear!
An Irish couple turned me on to Father Ted. Hilarious. It manages to be acid-tongued, yet surprisingly kind. The greatest Irish sitcom.
My favorite episode contains a parody of Sinead O’Connor. Reportedly O’Connor loved it.
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Big men in frocks telling us what to do
They can’t get pregnant like I do
You give us all your rules
But that’s not the way it was
Women ruled the land of Tír na nÓg
–“Rock a Hula Ted” (S02E07 1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjpx_Jwu6Mo
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Father Ted was in many respects brutal to the Catholic Church. It’s a reflection of the Church’s decline in Ireland that Ted made it to television.
Anyway Father Ted, as Nonapod points out, is Why Graham Lineham Matters.
We watched “Father Ted”, also “Blacks Books” and I think my daughter watched “The IT Crowd.” “Father Ted” was hilarious, and so was “Blacks Books.” And yes, indeed – Graham Lineham does matter, and so does every other Brit being harassed, arrested and imprisoned for voicing an opinion or baldly stating a fact which the Ruling Class doesn’t want to hear.
Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free, indeed.
So far King Charles’ is turning a deaf ear to calls to exercise his monarchial power. He can disband this Parliament of globalists intent upon Britain’s cultural murder and call for new elections. That may be the last chance for a peaceful resolution.
To paraphrase John F Kennedy; ‘Those who make peaceful reform impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.’
Looks, comparing head to shoulders, as if the guy is not very big. But they needed five fully-kitted cops in case a small Scottish girl was nearby,
So the irish version of john cleese who helped tear down old england
In a similar vein was dave allen who was popular in the 80s section
King Charles, like his estimable mother, is a figurehead with no real power. Do not expect him to do anything. Further, he seems to be unduly sympathetic to Islam.
Good one, Richard Aubrey.
One is reminded of syme the perfectly conformist colleague of winston smith till he was tripped up by thought crime
Iit seems like the village in the prisoner was not a cautionary tale but an aspiration
The Conservative Party had fourteen years to repeal the legislation which is used as an excuse for these abuses. They accomplished nothing, just as they failed to stanch the inflow of foreigners.
The Brits were once able to forge an empire on which the sun never set. In my early days in the Navy, I saw Hong Kong, one of the pearls of the Empire. Big Gurkha cops, an RAF base, wonderful tailor shops, and very well run. We met some of the RAF blokes and they were very devil-mat-care hot shots. They were up to the job. It was 1957.
I met some Brits who were still living in Kenya in 1998. They were melancholy that the Empire was a memory and were sad about the loss of the British can do attitude. But I don’t think they had any idea what the next 27 years would bring to the island that once was an empire builder. It’s a cautionary tale.
The Babylon Bee
“English Bobbies Race Past Stabbings TO Tackle Offensive Social Media Poster.”
“Britain never had an especially robust tradition of free speech”…the deposed Kaiser Wilhelm II said in his memoirs that the British government had far more control over their press than he had ever had over his when he was reigning in Germany.
Great comment, David. You used the word “reign” correctly. Or possibly not, come to think of it …
I find that Linehan is an Irish citizen. Is that correct? If so, the Brits think they can arrest a citizen of country A who said something they don’t like while he was in country B and is going to or passing through the UK.
Might put a good many Americans at risk, should the Brits decide to take more of the plod off rape-prevention patrols and put them watching social media from the US. Presuming the former isn’t already staffed down to zero, I mean.