So, this morning I read that Graham Linehan – yeah, the Father Ted guy – got arrested at Heathrow. For tweets. Three tweets, apparently “inciting violence.” He’s Irish, not even British, and yet five armed cops pulled him off a flight like he was some sort of gangster.
Honestly, it freaks me out. If the UK is starting to drag people in over what they say online… where does that stop? I get it, words can hurt, but since when do we arrest people for being offesive? Feels like a line’s been crossed here – free speech isn’t suposed to be tidy or polite.
And here’s the thing – Americans should be watching too. Loads of big political figures, even Trump-linked folks, travel here. Imagine one of them posts somthing blunt back home, lands at Heathrow, and suddenly it’s cuffs and bail conditions banning Twitter? Could get ugly real fast.
This isn’t just about Linehan or even the UK. It’s about how fragile liberty gets when governments start picking and chooseing what we’re allowed to say. And yeah… that should scare everyone.
UK is stepping in doo doo.
US controls the social media platforms. Musk has shown Trump how platforms can interfere with usage. Trump will not countenance foreign governments setting rules for US platforms.
UK is going to be cutoff. Maybe some new tariffs, too. You have no cards to play.
BWTM: Trump saves free speech in Great Britain! Labour will be fatally embarrassed.
Jurisdiction can be in rem, or in personam. IOW, they can grab you, or they can grab your stuff.
The UK has just expressed its belief that, if you are in America – or anywhere other than the UK – and you type something into the internets that the UK officially dislikes, it has criminal-law jurisdiction over that act, and thus over you.
Thus, it can grab you if you enter the UK, or it can grab any assets you might have within the UK, as punishment for that foreign act.
So any furriner who has assets that might pass through the UK ought to be taking steps to either stop saying things that the UK government dislikes, or (even safer) get your assets out of the UK.
In the prosperity-decadence-collapse cycle, this is late decadence/early collapse. The government’s absurd actions are finally getting a reaction from the public . . .
The cycle happens because in a prosperous society, the prosperous inevitably shelter their prosperity. When government starts doing bizarre things because they are too comfortable (decadence), they say NOTHING. They will not risk their prosperity to save your lousy asses. And when good men don’t speak up, evil prevails. H/t Edmund Burke
. . . So the decadent rulers create new rules to protect their detached, clownish world. That’s what these free speech infringements are, actions of failing tyrants.
It is rare for decadence to end without collapse. GB has a long history of genius; perhaps you can save the country without collapse. Even though the collapse is well underway.
https://www.forbesburton.com/news/uks-distressed-business-list-2024
https://bmmagazine.co.uk/news/uk-sees-record-wave-of-business-closures-amid-tough-environment/
The odds are UK will become a colony of Denmark or Norway, or most ironically, Ireland. Is there a chance of change in 2029? I’m not sure you will last til then. The pace of collapse is going to accelerate. Free speech ban pours gas on the fire. Who is going to defend a country that bans free speech?
“So any furriner who has assets that might pass through the UK ought to be taking steps to either stop saying things that the UK government dislikes, or (even safer) get your assets out of the UK.”
Mr b, this applies equally to citizens. Your ship of state is listing.
So any furriner who has assets that might pass through the UK ought to be taking steps to either stop saying things that the UK government dislikes, or (even safer) get your assets out of the UK.
The UK has already shown that if it doesn’t like foreigners the government will nick their stuff. Only they call it “freezing banks accounts and giving them to Ukraine”.
Nicking foreign assets is an act of war.
So, heresy laws make a comeback. Will burning at the stake follow?
US press is all over this ATROCITY.
Wouldn’t be surprised if there is a sharp drop off in tourist visits to UK. This may cost you many millions.
“Your ship of state is listing.”
Fortunately for me, my ship of state has orange hair and makes me very happy. 😉
(The semi-serious scotch-talk tonight had to do with, where are your investments homed? Can England grab money from an American account sitting with Barcley’s in London if they decide you, an American, has tweeted poorly? With their new take on jurisdiction, the answer was a rather scary “this is new territory.”)
If taxing the wealthy so much they fuck off to Dubai or wherever isn’t enough, we now have our clowns sending an implicit signal to the rest of the world that this country is a police state and is to be avoided at all costs. We will see an acceleration of the exodus of the richest and most productive and a drop in the number of visitors.
On the other hand, if you are a low IQ gimmegrant with no assets and no skills whatsoever who turns up, you will be afforded every courtesy, no matter what real crimes you may have committed in the past.
“US press is all over this ATROCITY.”
A lot of the UK press is giving Smarmer a rough ride over it too – sadly now they have the Red Queen’s housing troubles to distract them, so we are dependent on Musk keeping up the pressure. I’ve long been astonished at how quickly and completely the trans virus spread through the body of state, but even I couldn’t have predicted this farrago.
Colour me slightly nonplussed by the post but is anyone surprised by this? – as Steve mentioned in his post last night on the ‘Ermine’ for Murphy, Socialism and totalitarianism go hand in hand. You can’t have competing narratives in a socialist society. It just takes time to implement and overcome existing institutional barriers but the Left has had control of education for probably 8 decades the judiciary maybe for 40, the press since the 60s.
That’s before Brown created the non productive public sector and massively expanded the quangocracy where right -wing people were automatically rejected for jobs and removed if discovered. My guess is their complaint about North Korea is its technological backwardness. have no doubt whatsoever these people would put everyone on here in a detention camp at best and would probably want most of us executed. These people are evil to their Core, and unfortunately I have several in my own family.
I’m curious about the jurisdiction in this case. Linehan is an Irish citizen, now resident in Arizona where he is developing a sitcom with Andrew Doyle of Titania McGrath fame. He posted some tweets on an American platform while in America. He was in Britain to appear in the London Westminster High Court over previous tweets of his.
What is Britain’s jurisdiction in all this?
“If the UK is starting to drag people in over what they say online… where does that stop? I get it, words can hurt, but since when do we arrest people for being offesive?”
Since forever.
Try opening a shop and selling a DVD that hasn’t been classified by the BBFC. Video Recordings Act 1984. Maximum penalty of £20,000 or six months in prison. Obscene Publications Act 1959 is still in force.
And let’s be honest. Most people arguing for Graham Linehan wouldn’t defend Nick Griffin’s right to free speech.
Thx, bobby b. I checked my holdings, and they are all American based. UK is going to have to steal from someone else.
La perfide Albion.