On Monday, Graham Linehan—the creator of several hit British sitcoms, including Father Ted and The IT Crowd—arrived from Arizona at London’s Heathrow Airport. Awaiting him there were five armed police officers who were under orders to arrest him.
Linehan’s supposed crime? A series of posts on X deemed anti-trans by British authorities. As the Metropolitan Police put it, Linehan was under arrest on “suspicion of inciting violence.”
The closest he gets to that in his offending posts is a call to “make a scene, call the cops, and if all else fails, punch him in the balls” if any of his followers encounter a biological man “in a female-only space.” (It’s perhaps worth noting, again, that he is a comedy writer.)
The position Linehan finds himself in is all too common. Under the guise of protecting “public safety,” British authorities now routinely question or arrest people for online speech. According to The Times of London, police in the UK now make more than 30 arrests a day for purportedly offensive posts on social media.
J.K. Rowling’s blunt response to Linehan’s detainment was right: “What the fuck has the UK become? This is totalitarianism. Utterly deplorable.”
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Author: The Editors
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