London
—
Armed cops are a uncommon sight in Britain, however the Irish comic Graham Linehan was met by 5 of them when he landed at London’s Heathrow Airport from Arizona on Monday, earlier than being arrested, searched and questioned.
The motive? Three posts he wrote on X in April, Linehan claimed on his Substack.
“If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act,” Linehan wrote in considered one of them, in reference to trans ladies. “Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.”
Without naming Linehan – the co-creator of the sitcom “Father Ted” who’s a gender vital activist – London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed it had arrested a man in his 50s “on suspicion of inciting violence.”
Linehan denied that his posts had been “a call to violence” towards trans ladies and has been launched on bail. He arrived at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court to face the fees towards him on Thursday morning.
For Nigel Farage, the populist chief of the hard-right Reform UK occasion, Linehan’s arrest was “rather timely.” He had been invited to present proof earlier than the US House of Representative’s Judiciary Committee in Washington on Wednesday, for a listening to on “European threats to free speech.”
Farage, who mentioned he arrived from “the land of Magna Carta,” now had what he felt was a smoking gun – extra proof that the UK is sliding into what he referred to as a “really awful authoritarian situation.”
“At what point did we become North Korea?” Farage requested US lawmakers. “Well, I think the Irish comedy writer found that out two days ago at Heathrow Airport.”
While the rebel Farage wants little excuse to chip away on the flailing Labour authorities of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Linehan’s arrest is the newest in a sequence of incidents which have fueled a livid debate about Britain’s legal guidelines on free speech – one which has put it in the crosshairs of the Trump administration.
Speaking on the Munich Security Conference in February, US Vice President JD Vance rattled off a number of circumstances in Britain that he mentioned proved free speech was “in retreat” there. Last month, the US State Department printed a report claiming that human rights in Britain have “worsened” over the previous 12 months, citing “serious restrictions” on free speech.
Although Britain has no codified structure, and therefore no equal of the First Amendment to enshrine freedom of speech, the nation has had free speech “for a very, very long time,” as Starmer has careworn throughout his conferences with the US president.
But its legal guidelines round free speech comprise a cluster of acts – some a long time previous – which critics say are struggling to maintain tempo with digital expertise.
In a high-profile case final 12 months, Lucy Connolly, a mom and former nanny, was sentenced to 31 months in jail for a publish she despatched on X whereas Britain was convulsed by anti-immigration riots.
The riots had been sparked by the homicide of three schoolgirls by Axel Rudakubana, the British son of Rwandan migrants. Misinformation about the identification of the attacker prompted mass demonstrations exterior the motels Britain makes use of to house asylum seekers, a few of which turned violent.
“Mass deportations now, set fire to all the f––king hotels full of the bastards for all I care,” Connolly wrote in June 2024. “If that makes me racist so be it.”
Connolly was convicted beneath the Public Order Act of 1986, which criminalizes distributing threatening and abusive materials aspiring to “stir up racial hatred.” She was launched final month after serving 40% of her jail time period.
While many on the British proper decry that residents may be imprisoned for social media posts, attorneys have careworn that such speech would have been unlawful earlier than the appearance of social media.
Whether shouted from Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park or written on X, inciting violence may be prison in the United Kingdom. “It is possible to cross the line into criminality by words alone,” Max Hill, previously director of public prosecutions for England and Wales, informed the BBC Wednesday. “Tweeting that you should set fire to all the hotels containing migrants … is crossing that line very clearly.”
Although Connolly pleaded responsible to the cost towards her, she has since claimed she was a “political prisoner,” turning into a trigger célèbre for the web proper.
Farage mentioned he hoped to convey her with him to Congress on Wednesday. “Sadly, the restrictions that have been put on her banned her from making the trip, which is a very, very great shame,” he mentioned.
Although a lot of the fury has been fanned by the appropriate, Starmer’s authorities has additionally come beneath fireplace from the left, with pro-Palestinian activists additionally claiming their speech is being unfairly policed.
After activists with the Palestine Action group broke into Britain’s largest airbase in June and broken two army plane, the British authorities designated the group a terrorist group. Under the Terrorism Act 2000, terrorism consists of motion involving “serious damage to property” in assist of a political goal.
Because supporting terror organizations can also be proscribed, protesters aligned with Palestine Action have since been focused. Police arrested 466 people in a single day throughout a protest in London in August.
The spectacle troubled a few of Britain’s most outstanding authorized authorities. Jonathan Sumption, a former Supreme Court justice, wrote in the British newspaper The Independent that “merely indicating your support for a terrorist organization without doing anything to assist or further its acts should not be a criminal offense and is consistent with basic rights to free speech.”
After Linehan’s arrest, the top of the Metropolitan Police referred to as on the federal government to “change or clarify” the legal guidelines his officers should implement.
Mark Rowley mentioned the choice to arrest Linehan “was made within existing legislation – which dictates that a threat to punch someone from a protected group could be an offense.” But he mentioned his officers had been put in an “impossible position,” with Britain’s legal guidelines drawing them into “toxic culture-wars debates.”
He urged the federal government to “limit the resources we dedicate to tackling online statements to those cases creating real threats in the real world.” Asked by parliament about the arrest, Starmer additionally mentioned the police should “focus on the most serious issues.”
While British establishments creak beneath the strain of fixing expertise, Farage mentioned it supplied a warning to the US. “I’ve come today to be a klaxon, to say don’t allow piece by piece this to happen here in America,” he informed Congress.
US Rep. Jamie Raskin, the highest Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, countered that the UK prime minister has not shut down the right-wing information broadcaster GB News, the place Farage has hosted his personal present, which is vital of the British authorities. He additionally mentioned the chief of a Reform council barred a native newspaper and web site from interacting with the authority.
“To the people of the UK who think this … free speech impostor and Trump sycophant will protect freedom in your country, come over to America and see what Trump and MAGA are doing to destroy our freedom,” Raskin mentioned.
“You might think twice before you let Farage ‘make Britain great again.’”