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The comedian's bail conditions are that he can't post on Twitter. So either STFU or you'll languish in jail for years awaiting trial.
Does the UK have no free speech?
Comedian Graham Linehan arrested over trans tweets
The 57-year-old TV writer says he has been ordered not to use the social media platform X while he has been released on bail after being detained by armed police at Heathrow
Graham Linehan says he was “locked in a cell like a criminal” and that “the stress nearly killed me”
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP
Sir Keir Starmer has told the police to prioritise serious crimes after the comedian Graham Linehan was arrested over gender critical social media posts.
The prime minister made the comments after the Father Ted creator was arrested by five armed officers from the Metropolitan Police as he got off a flight on Monday at Heathrow airport.
The case has prompted a public backlash. Nigel Farage warned ahead of a visit to US politicians that “free speech is under assault”.
Linehan said the UK had become hostile to freedom of speech
Reform UK’s leader said he would raise Linehan’s arrest with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
“The Graham Linehan case is yet another example of the war on freedom in the UK,” he said. “I will discuss this, the Lucy Connolly case and the increasing role of our police in non-crime ‘hate’ incidents on Capitol Hill tomorrow. Free speech is under assault, and I am urging the USA to be vigilant.”
Linehan revealed that he was arrested on Monday by five armed police officers on arrival at Heathrow airport over three tweets about transgender activists.
The comedian said he had been treated like a “terrorist” on arrival in Britain after a ten-hour flight from Arizona.
Both JK Rowling and Elon Musk condemned the writer’s treatment as “utterly deplorable” and “totalitarianism”. Musk branded Britain a “police state”.
The prime minister’s spokesman said that Starmer believed in “free speech” and thought that officers should spend their time dealing with “issues that matter most to our communities”.
He said: “This is an operational matter for the police, but the prime minister and the home secretary have been clear about what their priorities on crime and policing are: that’s tackling antisocial behaviour, shoplifting and street crime as well as reducing serious violent crime such as knife crime and violence against women.”
The spokesman declined to comment directly on Linehan’s arrest, saying it was up to the police to make operational decisions.
• Graham Linehan: It will take decades to undo the trans movement damage
Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, criticised the police force’s actions as “thought-policing”, adding that “sending five officers to arrest a man for a tweet isn’t policing, it’s politics. It’s time this government told the police their job is to protect the public, not monitor social media for hurty words.”
The Metropolitan Police confirmed on Tuesday that he had been arrested on suspicion of inciting violence “in relation to posts on X”.
Linehan told The Times: “I was outraged by what happened. I’d just travelled ten hours from Arizona to voluntarily appear in another court case and they thought they had to send armed police to get me.
“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.”
Describing the arrest in his blog, Linehan also wrote: “The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two, five. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets.”
He said that for the most part the police had been “decent” in their handling of the affair and some were even Father Ted fans, but he later added: “The civility of individual officers doesn’t alter the fundamental reality of what happened.
“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.”
Linehan, who also wrote the sitcom The IT Crowd, said that being detained for 12 hours and questioned by police had led his blood pressure to rise to dangerously high levels, resulting in him being taken to hospital.
“The stress of being arrested for jokes was literally threatening my life!” he wrote. “So I was escorted to A&E, where I write this now after spending about eight hours under observation.”
The Met Police said Linehan’s condition was “neither life-threatening nor life-changing”
Linehan said that he had been released on bail on the condition that he must refrain from using X.
The 57-year-old comedy writer shared the tweets that he says police arrested him over in an online blog post.
One from April 20 said: “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.”
A second tweet, on April 19, was a picture of a trans rally with the caption: “A photo you can smell.”
The third was a follow-up to that tweet, which read: “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.”
Linehan claimed that rather than inciting violence, he was making a “bad joke” in his suggestion about punching a trans woman if they were in female-only spaces.
Linehan attended Westminster magistrates’ court in London in May, where he pleaded not guilty to harassing a transgender woman
He insisted that the tweets were a demonstration of his anger at trans activists for encroaching on women’s rights by demanding access to their services and spaces.
“I was outraged by what happened,” he said. “I’d just travelled ten hours from Arizona to voluntarily appear in another court case and they thought they had to send armed police to get me.
“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.”
Linehan said in his blog that he had a single bail condition: “I am not to go on Twitter. That’s it. No threats, no speeches about the seriousness of my crimes, just a legal gag order designed to shut me up while I’m in the UK and a demand I face a further interview in October.”
A spokeswoman for the Met said: “On Monday September 1 at 13.00, officers arrested a man at Heathrow airport after he arrived on an inbound American Airlines flight. The man in his fifties was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence. This was in relation to posts on X.
“After being taken to police custody, officers became concerned for his health and he was taken to hospital. His condition is neither life-threatening nor life-changing. He has now been bailed pending further investigation.”
Does the UK have no free speech?
Comedian Graham Linehan arrested over trans tweets
The 57-year-old TV writer says he has been ordered not to use the social media platform X while he has been released on bail after being detained by armed police at Heathrow
Graham Linehan says he was “locked in a cell like a criminal” and that “the stress nearly killed me”
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP
Sir Keir Starmer has told the police to prioritise serious crimes after the comedian Graham Linehan was arrested over gender critical social media posts.
The prime minister made the comments after the Father Ted creator was arrested by five armed officers from the Metropolitan Police as he got off a flight on Monday at Heathrow airport.
The case has prompted a public backlash. Nigel Farage warned ahead of a visit to US politicians that “free speech is under assault”.
Linehan said the UK had become hostile to freedom of speech
Reform UK’s leader said he would raise Linehan’s arrest with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
“The Graham Linehan case is yet another example of the war on freedom in the UK,” he said. “I will discuss this, the Lucy Connolly case and the increasing role of our police in non-crime ‘hate’ incidents on Capitol Hill tomorrow. Free speech is under assault, and I am urging the USA to be vigilant.”
Linehan revealed that he was arrested on Monday by five armed police officers on arrival at Heathrow airport over three tweets about transgender activists.
The comedian said he had been treated like a “terrorist” on arrival in Britain after a ten-hour flight from Arizona.
Both JK Rowling and Elon Musk condemned the writer’s treatment as “utterly deplorable” and “totalitarianism”. Musk branded Britain a “police state”.
The prime minister’s spokesman said that Starmer believed in “free speech” and thought that officers should spend their time dealing with “issues that matter most to our communities”.
He said: “This is an operational matter for the police, but the prime minister and the home secretary have been clear about what their priorities on crime and policing are: that’s tackling antisocial behaviour, shoplifting and street crime as well as reducing serious violent crime such as knife crime and violence against women.”
The spokesman declined to comment directly on Linehan’s arrest, saying it was up to the police to make operational decisions.
• Graham Linehan: It will take decades to undo the trans movement damage
Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, criticised the police force’s actions as “thought-policing”, adding that “sending five officers to arrest a man for a tweet isn’t policing, it’s politics. It’s time this government told the police their job is to protect the public, not monitor social media for hurty words.”
The Metropolitan Police confirmed on Tuesday that he had been arrested on suspicion of inciting violence “in relation to posts on X”.
Linehan told The Times: “I was outraged by what happened. I’d just travelled ten hours from Arizona to voluntarily appear in another court case and they thought they had to send armed police to get me.
“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.”
Describing the arrest in his blog, Linehan also wrote: “The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two, five. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets.”
He said that for the most part the police had been “decent” in their handling of the affair and some were even Father Ted fans, but he later added: “The civility of individual officers doesn’t alter the fundamental reality of what happened.
“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.”
Linehan, who also wrote the sitcom The IT Crowd, said that being detained for 12 hours and questioned by police had led his blood pressure to rise to dangerously high levels, resulting in him being taken to hospital.
“The stress of being arrested for jokes was literally threatening my life!” he wrote. “So I was escorted to A&E, where I write this now after spending about eight hours under observation.”
The Met Police said Linehan’s condition was “neither life-threatening nor life-changing”
Linehan said that he had been released on bail on the condition that he must refrain from using X.
The 57-year-old comedy writer shared the tweets that he says police arrested him over in an online blog post.
One from April 20 said: “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.”
A second tweet, on April 19, was a picture of a trans rally with the caption: “A photo you can smell.”
The third was a follow-up to that tweet, which read: “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.”
Linehan claimed that rather than inciting violence, he was making a “bad joke” in his suggestion about punching a trans woman if they were in female-only spaces.
Linehan attended Westminster magistrates’ court in London in May, where he pleaded not guilty to harassing a transgender woman
He insisted that the tweets were a demonstration of his anger at trans activists for encroaching on women’s rights by demanding access to their services and spaces.
“I was outraged by what happened,” he said. “I’d just travelled ten hours from Arizona to voluntarily appear in another court case and they thought they had to send armed police to get me.
“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.”
Linehan said in his blog that he had a single bail condition: “I am not to go on Twitter. That’s it. No threats, no speeches about the seriousness of my crimes, just a legal gag order designed to shut me up while I’m in the UK and a demand I face a further interview in October.”
A spokeswoman for the Met said: “On Monday September 1 at 13.00, officers arrested a man at Heathrow airport after he arrived on an inbound American Airlines flight. The man in his fifties was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence. This was in relation to posts on X.
“After being taken to police custody, officers became concerned for his health and he was taken to hospital. His condition is neither life-threatening nor life-changing. He has now been bailed pending further investigation.”
