“How many police officers does it take to arrest one middle-aged sitcom writer?” Unfortunately, it’s not a joke, said Frank Furedi in the Daily Mail. When Graham Linehan, the co-creator of “Father Ted” and “The IT Crowd”, landed at Heathrow from his home in the US last Monday, five armed police were waiting for him. His alleged offence? A series of posts on X/Twitter in which he had inveighed against trans rights activists.
In one, he called them “misogynists and homophobes”. In another, he had tweeted that if a woman saw “a trans-identified male” in a “female-only space”, she should “make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails punch him in the balls”. Linehan insists he meant it as humour; but even if you think it’s unfunny or objectionable, it was surely not a pressing police matter.
Yet Linehan was arrested and held for 12 hours; he was granted bail only on the condition that he kept off social media. It’s a symptom of a wider issue, said The Times. Britain has a real problem with “the suppression of free speech”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
‘Inflammatory comments’
The chorus of outrage was predictable, said Marc Burrows in The Independent. But Linehan has spent many years “making inflammatory comments” about trans people, relentlessly hounding “a vulnerable, marginalised group”: he came back to Britain to face charges that he harassed a trans woman and broke her phone. And the truth is that tweets “have real-world consequences”. Free speech has never been absolute. Inciting violence is an offence; and encouraging people to punch trans women certainly sounds like incitement to me.
‘Breathtaking contrast’
I’m no fan of Linehan’s crusade, said Janice Turner in The Times: it has often been “cruel” and counter-productive. “Yet the contrast between the police response to his words and those addressed to women by violent trans activists is simply breathtaking.” Any woman who has spoken out on this subject has received endless death threats and rape threats. We have stopped reporting them because the police just aren’t interested. Yet they seem to jump to attention when trans activists call. The police today mostly won’t attend over a stolen phone or car, even if you can track it to a precise address. “Yet for a problematic tweet, they’ll arrest you at the airport.”
-
A foodie guide to EdinburghThe Week Recommends Go all-out with a Michelin-starred meal or grab a casual bite in the Scottish capital
-
Political cartoons for December 24Cartoons Wednesday's political cartoons include Christmas in Greenland, grinchflation, and California floods
-
Is there a Christmas truce in the Starmer farmer ding-dong?Today’s Big Question There’s an ‘early present’ for farmers but tensions between Labour and rural communities remain
-
Trump vs. states: Who gets to regulate AI?Feature Trump launched a task force to challenge state laws on artificial intelligence, but regulation of the technology is under unclear jurisdiction
-
Pipe bombs: The end of a conspiracy theory?Feature Despite Bongino and Bondi’s attempt at truth-telling, the MAGAverse is still convinced the Deep State is responsible
-
Trump: Losing energy and supportFeature Polls show that only one of his major initiatives—securing the border—enjoys broad public support
-
Trump’s poll collapse: can he stop the slide?Talking Point President who promised to ease cost-of-living has found that US economic woes can’t be solved ‘via executive fiat’
-
The military: When is an order illegal?Feature Trump is making the military’s ‘most senior leaders complicit in his unlawful acts’
-
Ukraine and Rubio rewrite Russia’s peace planFeature The only explanation for this confusing series of events is that ‘rival factions’ within the White House fought over the peace plan ‘and made a mess of it’
-
The US-Saudi relationship: too big to fail?Talking Point With the Saudis investing $1 trillion into the US, and Trump granting them ‘major non-Nato ally’ status, for now the two countries need each other
-
Nigel Farage: was he a teenage racist?Talking Point Farage’s denials have been ‘slippery’, but should claims from Reform leader’s schooldays be on the news agenda?
