The Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan was once known for his charming, sometimes surreal sitcoms—Father Ted, Black Books, The IT Crowd—on British TV. These days, however, he is better known for his online crusade against transgender activism. His X feed takes the same approach as Libs of TikTok, cherry-picking videos of criminals and fetishists in a full-scale assault on “gender ideology.”
He is obsessive and offensive. But is he a criminal? The British police seem to think so. Linehan was arrested by five armed officers today on his return from the United States, where he has been working on a new sitcom, and was accused of “inciting violence.” He says this allegation relates to three posts on X. (Authorities have not contradicted him, and British news outlets are treating his account as credible.) In one of the offending posts, he wrote: “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.” Can criminal incitement really occur in a hypothetical situation? If so, we’re going to need a bigger holding cell.
