Another very troubling development here on free speech.

The well known comedy writer Graham Linehan was arrested by armed police of the "MPS Aviation Unit" on his arrival at Heathrow Airport from the United States yesterday because of something he wrote on Twitter/X a few months ago on the trans issue, and is now banned from using X as a condition of his bail while they investigate him.

It's not lost on me the irony of flying in from the USA to the UK to get arrested for this. Clearly the police in this country are stubbornly refusing to read the room of public opinion and carrying on regardless with this persecution of free speech in the UK. There has surely got to be political interference in the police here with all this? To arrest someone off the plane like a wanted fugitive terrorist who cannot be allowed to get away! Just incredible, sinister and very dangerous if the police can keep this up.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c07p7v2nn8mo


I no longer recognise the country I live in.

From Linehan's substack, it should be readable, giving the full story and showing his "criminal" tweets. 5 ARMED POLICE!

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/i-just-got-...again?utm_medium=ios


Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson makes the same point I started with;

x.com/AllisonPearson/status/196288147800...Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

There was a time we could laugh at each other, do banter, speak our minds and hold opinions.

I don't understand why we have a police force when they care more about so-called hurtful words and real crimes seem to be ignored, and the victim only gets a police number and an NFA follows.

I can't stand Jim Davidson. I have met him at a private function he was obnoxious. He thought every woman fancied him and swore at them when they refused his advances. He even made the poor barmaid cry. He is right on the ball here. A broken clock is correct twice a day. My sister did hospitality at a golf course, a young lad asked Jim for an autograph, he yelled out, "Fuck Off, will ya!" The lad was only about 11 or so. Jim lost his membership soon after, but he probably cancelled it to save face.

I wonder if Jim Davidson would be arrested for hurty words?

Why are we paying taxes?

Regards this kicking in the balls bit of the Linehan tweet. I remember having a teacher who saw a boy kick at someone and make them slip on a wet changing room floor and hurt themselves. That teacher actually said to the culprit kid if he did it again he would kick him in the balls, which were fully on display at that moment, having showered! It was not hate speech or inciting violence, just a turn of phrase used for effect, we knew he wouldn't do it. When I think a bit more about it I could cite numerous examples of what would now be considered homophobic hate speech uttered by a teacher at kids in school who were not great at certain sports that men are supposed to obsess over.

By the way GM, it's not a police force, it's a service don't forget. Although come to think of it, it's a police service if you are left of centre and a force if you are on the right.

I'm genuinely surprised by what you say about Jim Davidson, especially with the child.

Meanwhile Sarah White of Reform UK, the woman who draped the Union flag at the front of the Epping council building and got arrested was held for 24 hours. Police maintain she wasn't arrested for the flag but for going outside of the agreed protest zone, but since when is anyone held for 24 hours for trespass? The police are supposed to diffuse situations not inflame them. Why didn't they just lead her back down the steps calmly after she'd made her point with he flag? In what way is her arrest and now charging in the public interest?

Trespassing is a civil matter unless physical violence is involved.

He exhorted people to commit violence on others.

It's a crime and always has been.

Why would someone encourage others to inflict violence on others especially often marginalized trans folk?

You have the right to believe what you want and that his arrest was unwarranted. But you need to agitate for a change in the law in that case but I don't see that happening. What politician is going to support the freedom to promote violence?

But why would you support his exhortations to violence?

It's a bit of a worrying trend...a person encouraging people to burn other people to death in an Epping hotel is seen as some sort of brave warrior? Very weird if you ask me.

People always take things literally, it's why humour is dead.

Wes Streeting needs to push for First Amendment rights in the UK. Starmer said we have a history of free speech rather than a tradition of free speech. He admits it's no longer a thing.

Wish people stopped banging on about Reform they are not going to change a thing.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2922w73e1o

If there is a law that says that you can't make comments that incite violence, then if you say that you should punch any trans women in a women only space then this is clearly an incitement to violence.
If a trans woman is in a women's toilet then big deal, they have individual cubicles.

Women go into men's toilets all the time at concerts and the theatre. I don't think anyone would say that we should punch them.

Five officers to arrest him is an over-reaction, but as far as the law is concerned then it looks like a clear breach.

I go to a lot of gigs Robbie. I have never seen ladies go and use the men's facilities, the same with theatre gigs.

People need to stop taking social media posts literally, there's something as a figure of speech!

Green Man wrote:
People always take things literally, it's why humour is dead.

Wes Streeting needs to push for First Amendment rights in the UK. Starmer said we have a history of free speech rather than a tradition of free speech. He admits it's no longer a thing.

Wish people stopped banging on about Reform they are not going to change a thing.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2922w73e1o
I'm surprised you think Graham Linehan's comment shouldn't be taken literally as, if I remember correctly, you thought that Jo Brand's comment about Nigel Farage and battery acid was incitement to violence. It's a bit inconsistent. I doubt that either intended their comments to be taken literally.

Jo Brand battery acid joke 'went too far', BBC rules

Referring to political figures who had been hit by milkshakes, she said: "I'm thinking, why bother with a milkshake when you could get some battery acid?"

The Met Commissioner Mark Rowley is shifting the blame to politicians and the law and away from his officers. Clearly one ingredient to be a Met officer is a lack of basic common sense and risk assessment of an individual situation then.

In a statement today, Rowley said the decision to arrest Linehan "was made within existing legislation, which dictates that a threat to punch someone from a protected group could be an offence".

With these few words the top police chief in London has openly admitted two tier policing in the clearest terms.

A threat to punch someone from a "protected group" could be an offence he says, which suggests that a threat to punch someone from a non protected group would not be considered so to him. So we are not all equal before the law at all in his world. You get a different police response depending on your own personal circumstances and group of you belong to.

Do the police not understand when they are being manipulated by extremist agitators who instigate others to pile on the fatuous complaints about someone like Linehan and see these complaints for what they really are? He made the comments five months ago.

there is the infamous case of someone exhorting another person to commit violence..or did he?

The Derek Bentley case in 1953 where he said to his burglary companion to "let him have it" when police asked him to hand over a gun. The friend shot the policeman.

Bentley was convicted by a jury & executed for murder but his family always maintained he meant for his friend to hand over the gun, not shoot. The shooter just received a jail sentence.

Always been against the law to exhort others to violence.

The fact these latest examples were on social media where they became exaggerated and re-posted is worrying.

The woman who exhorted others to burn down a hotel had her tweet re-tweeted over 900 times and it was seen by 100,000s.

People take such a risk doing this.If a trans person is beaten up in a women's toilet Graham Lineham may well be in the frame.

I do agree having 5 cops arrest someone at the airport is probably overkill when a summons would probably do.

But doubtful the law will change in the near future.

Oh, please! A bloke in the ladies has no right to be there and you know it. I am sure Katie Piper and women from certain communities will say acid is no joke.

Women are becoming second-class citizens, funny how feminists are silent on FGM but happy to march about some Weinstein and Trump.

Lucy said if the hotel burnt down, she would not care.

She didn't ask or tell anyone to burn it.

And if the online agitators hadn't got all puffed up and run into the arms of the police and wasted their time then almost nobody would have become aware of any of these "threats" in the first place. They end up amplifying the very things they take offence at.

It is not a crime to be offensive.

Maybe someone in the police would like to explain quite clearly what the particular role was of each of those 5 officers and the exact nature of the need for 5 of them. I doubt they can justify it. Overmanning used to be something talked about in industry in the 1970s but the police seem to be outdoing even those days, yet at the very same time complaining about lack of numbers to police the streets and do work. They don't appear to like doing all the daily dreary mundane work anymore like patrolling to give a reassuring presence or the hard work of investigating burglary or low level crime to try and get results for innocent law abiding people, and they also love chasing down motorists too for next to nothing in many cases.

When you turn up to a guy like Linehan with 5 officers it is instantly an intimidating and aggressive position even if the officers are all polite and reasonable.

Even Starmer and this Labour Party can no longer defend it, so we know things have gone too far by a long way. Will this be the pivotal moment that puts an end to this sinister overreach?

If the police wished to speak to Linehan about something from many months ago why didn't they just contact him and ask him to pop along to a police station at an appointed time that suited both parties? If they had to speak to Linehan wasn't that the way to do it? Although even that is still overreach to me.

Rich have you noticed how silent the left-tards are about Ricky (Cut their throats) Jones?

Lucy should have pleaded not guilty and let it go to the Crown, that's what Jones did and the jury found not guilty.

They don't appear to like doing all the daily dreary mundane work anymore like patrolling to give a reassuring presence or the hard work of investigating burglary or low level crime to try and get results for innocent law abiding people, and they also love chasing down motorists too for next to nothing in many cases.

When you turn up to a guy like Linehan with 5 officers it is instantly an intimidating and aggressive position even if the officers are all polite and reasonable.

Even Starmer and this Labour Party can no longer defend it, so we know things have gone too far by a long way. Will this be the pivotal moment that puts an end to this sinister overreach?

If the police wished to speak to Linehan about something from many months ago why didn't they just contact him and ask him to pop along to a police station at an appointed time that suited both parties? If they had to speak to Linehan wasn't that the way to do it? Although even that is still overreach to me.


I have had 2 burglaries. On the last burglary, I had an officer turn up about 3 days later, and she was here about 15 mins, then left without saying much. She got in touch less than 48 hours to say "No further Action" and then hung up.

On the first one, no officer turned up; all communication was done over the phone. 24 hours later, he said "Sorry mate, it's a no further action". Before he hung up, I told him "I'm not your mate, mates help". He swore at me.

I suppose crime reference numbers on slips of paper do make handy bookmarks.

Green Man wrote:
I go to a lot of gigs Robbie. I have never seen ladies go and use the men's facilities, the same with theatr e gigs.

People need to stop taking social media posts literally, there's something as a figure of speech!

No offence GM, but most of the bands that you see are pretty obscure and probably have a predominantly male audience, so plenty of room in the women's loos. I think it was a recent theatre thing for the Now musical where women were going into the men's loos, as it was about 80% female audience. It wasn't the first time.

To say something like "I could kill him", or "I could murder him" is a figure of speech, but not "You should go and punch a trans women", thats not a thing. I think that Lineham did it just for the publicity, but its gone too far.

I never found Father Ted that funny anyway

Words are different to actions, but Jo Brand got away with it, so did Ricky Jones.

For example, when I went to the following with my partner to see Steel Panther, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Urban, Michael Bolton, Luke Combs and Brad Paisley, there was a shedload more women than men, especially at Steel Panther, where most women were drunk or high they still used the right crapper.

I have no idea why you think it was more men at those gigs than men.

Men do go to a lot of pretty boy gigs to keep their partners happy.


I could kill him", or "I could murder him" is a figure of speech, but not "You should go and punch a trans women", thats not a thing. I think that Lineham did it just for the publicity, but its gone too far.

I don't know what the difference is. I take most things with a pinch of salt to be honest, Robbie. Farage was physically assaulted several times not by a Tweet, but because people wanted to.