When DID Britain become North Korea?

 

Police were accused of a 'totalitarian' clampdown on free speech after the creator of Father Ted was arrested by armed officers over online comments about transgender activists.

Fury erupted at the Metropolitan Police's treatment of TV writer Graham Linehan, who told how he was dealt with 'like a terrorist', held in a cell and then had to be rushed to hospital because the stress 'nearly killed me'.

He was arrested at Heathrow by five armed officers as he returned to Britain, and accused of 'inciting violence' in relation to three posts he had made on social media network Twitter/X while living in the US - including what he says was a joke about urging women to punch transgender women if they use female-only spaces.

It came on a day when:

    UK borrowing costs spiralled to a 27-year high and the pound sank on Tuesday after an influx of 'tax fanatics' into No 10
    Sir Keir Starmer raised the prospect in Cabinet of everyone in Britain being forced to get a digital ID card to tackle illegal working
    His hard-left deputy Angela Rayner broke cover in Downing Street as speculation mounted over her leadership ambitions 

On Tuesday night, Irish comedy writer Mr Linehan, who said he was bailed on condition he did not use Twitter/X, told the Daily Mail: 'After spending a decade obsessing over their score on the Stonewall virtue index, the police can no longer tell up from down, left from right and, most worryingly of all, right from wrong.'
Harry Potter author JK Rowling led the chorus of outrage over his ordeal, asking online: 'What the f*** has the UK become? This is totalitarianism. Utterly deplorable.'

World's richest man Elon Musk branded Britain a 'police state' and asked: 'Why are police in Britain arresting citizens for social media posts instead of stopping child rape?'

Free speech campaigner and former police officer Harry Miller, who won a landmark court case against a force that investigated him for allegedly transphobic tweets, told the Daily Mail: 'This is the sort of behaviour you expect in North Korea, not from a British police force."
Downing Street declined to comment on the ongoing case, which risks reviving damaging claims by US Vice-President JD Vance that free speech is being eroded in Britain.

However Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman said the Prime Minister's priorities for the police were tackling street crime and serious violence, in what will be seen as a veiled swipe at the Met.

'On the specific incident it's an operational matter for the police, but the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary have been clear where their priorities for crime and policing are and that's tackling anti-social behaviour, shoplifting, street crime, as well as reducing serious violent crimes like knife crime and violence against women,' No 10 told reporters.

Lord Young, director of the Free Speech Union which is supporting Mr Linehan, told the Daily Mail: 'I don't think there's a better illustration of just how low we've sunk when it comes to free speech.

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