Thou Shall Not Tweet

The arrest of Graham Linehan is a shocking indictment of the UK's addiction to speech policing

Not much shocks me these days when it comes to assaults on our free speech, but the arrest of a middle-aged man, by five armed policeman, at Heathrow Airport, for three tweets has chilled me to the bone.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock – or perhaps a stone wall – you’ll know I’m referring to the horrifying ordeal comedian Graham Linehan was subject to this week at the hands of the Metropolitan Police. I won’t rehash the details here because you probably know most of them already. Except to say, I was delighted to hear my colleague Mo Lovatt draw out some of the more pertinent aspects of this alarming case when she joined Peter Cardwell on Talk TV on Tuesday. ‘Every time we hear one of these stories, I think surely THIS is going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back… and brings our police into check,’ she said. ‘You simply cannot arrest people for something they say.’

As one of our Battle of Ideas producers – where our motto is Free Speech Allowed – Mo was making a fundamental point about free speech – that you shouldn’t be arrested for something you say. But, of course, as we have seen, time and time again, in the UK you can be arrested for something you say.

The charges brought against Linehan are still the cause of some confusion. According to Toby Young of the Free Speech Union, whose lawyers are now representing Linehan, the police have said that the Father Ted writer is ‘being looked at for inciting violence,’ presumably for saying if women feel threatened by a man in a women-only space, they should feel free to kick him in the balls. But as Toby points out, ‘There is no statute on the statute books, no criminal offence, referring to incitement to violence. There are laws against incitement to hatred towards someone on the basis of their race, religion or sexual orientation – but not by dint of their transgender status.’

Has ‘incitement’ law become a tool of censorship?

Semantics aside, it is clear that the charge of ‘incitement’ is being used time and again to punish people whose speech falls outside the Overton Window of our ruling elite. The issue was brought to a head last summer with the imprisonment of Lucy Connolly. Some, such as Lord Sumption, have defended her conviction as being consistent with the law; others such as Andrew Doyle and the Free Speech Union argue her words fall short of true ‘incitement’. Many people seem to agree that her punishment was disproportionate to the crime, but was it incitement?

Where there was once a clear line between speech and action, it seems in Britain today that line is being blurred. If you believe, as much of our activist class do, that speech is violence, perhaps that is not surprising. But where should we draw the line? Is the Brandenburg Test, used in the US, a good measure? Should we ever have laws that govern what we can say? Or are the police and authorities weaponising incitement law for ideological ends?

This is one of the many issues we’ll be discussing at this year’s Battle of Ideas – Incitement law: a tool of censorship? – with a great panel of speakers too, do check it out, as well as the many debates we’ll be having around contemporary controversies in Crime and Policing.

Calling Uncle Sam

In her segment on Talk TV, Mo mentioned one of the common reactions to the Linehan case has been along the lines of ‘Is it time to put in a call to Uncle Sam?’ or ‘Can’t JD Vance come to our rescue?’ But, as she points out, ‘This is our country, and our free speech, it’s up to us to defend it.’ She’s not wrong. Throughout history, free speech has been defended from below, by people at the grassroots level, most often challenging state or institutional power and overreach. So, although there have been some welcome changes in the law of late, we can’t really allow ourselves to rely on legislation, or Supreme Court judgements, to protect this fundamental democratic right.

But is there a public appetite for defending free speech? Naturally, we’ll be interrogating this question in October, as part of our characteristically robust festival strand on Free Speech. In particular, on Sunday, we’ll be addressing it in our Keynote Controversy debate, Threat From Within: Europe’s Free Speech Crisis.

Following JD Vance’s remarks in Munich this year, where he declared, ‘In Britain and across Europe, free speech… is in retreat,’ we’ll be interrogating to what extent Europeans still believe in the principle that bad ideas are best defeated by better ideas, not by bans. And asking how those who value free speech can fight to ensure Europe rediscovers those foundational values of free speech and tolerance against an army of hostile forces – from digital censorship, EU and national government legislation to the increasing role of the courts.

If you’re planning to come the Battle of Ideas festival this year, don’t forget the EARLY BIRD tickets sale ends soon, so please get your tickets now. You can buy them here, and look out for our student discounts and free school pupil day tickets.

We’re working on the programme now, so do keep checking the website programme for more information on sessions and speaker updates. One of which, we hope, will be festival favourite, Graham Linehan himself.

Solidarity Father

In the meantime, we’re sending Graham our very best wishes and solidarity in his own battles and whilst he may not be able to tweet about it yet, we’ll be offering our solidarity by doing just that on his behalf. And some of us will be heading down to the Support Graham Linehan protest this week. It’s happening on Thursday and Friday this week (4-5 September) at Westminster Magistrates Court, 181 Marylebone Rd, London NW1 5BR, from 9.30am. Do join us if you can.

If you can’t get to Westminster this week, and can’t wait till October, please head over to our Youtube channel to see why we always value hearing Graham’s thoughts on How 'queerness' lost the plot and the many other thought-provoking debates from 2024.