Britain must wake up Follow rigorous reporting on the threats to our democracy Enjoy four months’ free access to The Telegraph. Cancel at any time. | | Graham Linehan was taken to A&E suffering from stress after his arrest | The arrest of comedian Graham Linehan on Monday has sparked an uproar among those concerned with the state of freedom of speech in the UK.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is set to raise Linehan’s arrest, along with the imprisonment of Lucy Connolly over a post on X, in discussions about free speech with allies of Donald Trump in Washington later today.
It comes after JD Vance, the vice-president, warned Britain not to go down the “very dark path” of censorship last month and told David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, the West had become “too comfortable with censoring” rather than engaging with other opinions.
Last night, the Prime Minister attacked the Met over the incident, but Sam Ashworth-Hayes writes below that Linehan’s arrest exposes a frightening truth about Britain under Labour.
 | Sam Ashworth-Hayes Telegraph Columnist | Nigel Farage’s appearance in front of a US House of Representatives committee could hardly be better timed. When Reform’s leader lists off the threats to free speech in the UK, he will do so with American minds freshly focused on the matter after the arrest of Graham Linehan by armed police at Heathrow airport.
It’s difficult to think of a better example of the stifling nature of Britain’s speech laws than the arrest of a comedy writer for posts on X mocking a favoured ideology, or the imposition of bail conditions barring him from posting on the same. And it’s difficult to think, too, of a better illustration of the purpose underlying their construction. Those who share Linehan’s views will think twice before expressing them in the future. The process is the punishment, and the visibility of the punishment is the deterrent.
It’s this approach to policing and speech that makes a mockery of Sir Keir Starmer’s knee-jerk response to JD Vance’s Oval Office criticism, and his claim that Britain has “had free speech for a very long time”. What British people have is a highly qualified right to express views within the boundaries set by the tight confines of law. So, too, do the North Koreans.
Lord Young – founder and general secretary of the Free Speech Union – is quite right to say that Linehan’s arrest “beggars belief”. Regrettably, it is far from the last such outrage we are likely to witness.
Read Sam’s analysis in full ➤
Plus, read the full story of Linehan’s arrest here ➤ | | Allison Pearson When the future prime minister gives evidence in Washington on threats to free speech, he will do so on behalf of the common-sense majority Continue reading ➤ Ambrose Evans-Pritchard The North Sea has a great future, Kemi – but it won’t be oil and gas Continue reading ➤ Celia Walden Brand all men ‘toxic’ and this is the natural consequence Continue reading ➤ | Free thinking. Straight talking. Explore more opinion from the nation’s leading comment writers Enjoy four months’ free access to The Telegraph. Cancel at any time. | | The lives of some of football’s biggest stars have been wrecked by the fallout from a multi-million-pound “fraud”, the full scale of which is only just emerging. Now, the victims are hoping a new BBC documentary will do for them what Mr Bates vs the Post Office did for those caught up in the Horizon scandal. Continue reading ➤ | | | The Green Party’s new leader describes himself as an “eco-populist” who wants to emulate the success of Nigel Farage, but on the Left of British politics. But in the process, Zack Polanski risks unwittingly providing a leg-up to Reform UK, the political opposite to everything he stands for.
Continue reading ➤ | | | Boudicca Fox-Leonard snoops for secrets on set | | | When WH Smith announced plans to sell its struggling high street business and focus on travel shops in the US, it was heralded as a shrewd move that would transform its fortunes. But it has been forced to admit that its profit forecasts for North America were overstated by £30m – sending its shares into freefall and triggering an emergency investigation by Deloitte auditors. Daniel Woolfson assesses the fallout.
Continue reading ➤ | | | When Julia Bradbury, the TV presenter, was diagnosed with breast cancer at 50, her children aged just six and nine, there was one thing that she thought about more than anything: “I want to be around on this planet for as long as possible for them.” Here, she talks about how she made the decision to go alcohol-free – swapping vodka shots for olive oil – and why she hasn’t looked back. Continue reading ➤ | | | William Morris patterns never go out of style, so the launch of 26 never-seen-before designs – some by Morris himself – is big news. The collection is a collaboration with an American museum that holds a large archive of Morris materials, including unfinished sketches that have been reworked into fabrics and wallpapers. See our pick of the best designs, and how to use them in your home, here.
Continue reading ➤
Here are two more helpful articles for you this morning: - Treacle tart, polenta cake and pavlova are just some of the puddings that taste even better as next-day leftovers. Here are Telegraph Food Columnist Xanthe Clay’s day two go-tos.
- From model villages to pick-your-own and steam railways, these are 10 great British days out that hark back to a golden age of travel.
| | Gill Gluck, 64, wants to sell her four-bedroom house in south east London, and move somewhere more rural | “It would just be nice not to be desperate, which I probably have been throughout my whole life, working in the NHS.” This is the aim for Telegraph reader Gill Gluck, 64, a retired nurse who wants to downsize to the coast from south-east London, and hopefully free up some cash in the process so she can finally stop living month to month.
While your options can feel restricted once you’ve stopped working, the good news is her property is valuable, and she doesn’t have too long to wait until her state pension payments kick in. According to the financial experts Telegraph Money asked to assess her situation, Ms Gluck should prioritise getting a full view of her savings and outgoings, so she knows more definitively how much money she needs each month, and therefore how much she can save or invest to make sure she can afford little luxuries like holidays in the future.
While she says she’s risk averse, there are lower-risk investment options like money market funds to consider, along with Premium Bonds and cash Isas to shield her from incurring a tax bill on her savings. Read the advice in full here ➤ | Waistline woes Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
It is one of life’s great injustices that the best things to eat and drink generally don’t do wonders for the waistline. (No, you will not convince me that wholewheat pasta can be “just as nice”.) This only becomes truer as we get older. The other day I was thinking about how, aged 18, I used to put away two croissants for breakfast every morning, while remaining almost too thin for my obligatory noughties skinny jeans. A few seconds later I realised that my jaw was hanging open in scandalised indignation. I barely touch pastries now, but you could fit a silage bale through a letterbox with greater ease than I could squeeze into those jeans.
Still: got to live with it, I suppose. And in response to our article on how to combat the pernicious “middle-aged spread”, Telegraph readers have been sharing their tips.
Lizzie Campbell advised: “Just eat half of what you usually eat – eg, one slice of toast instead of two – and salad instead of fries. That sort of thing.”
Nigel Griffiths confessed: “The D shape has set in and is hard to remove. Our way forward is exercising every day walking the dogs, rain or shine, and opting for smaller plates with protein and greens.”
Lee Ratcliffe added: “I eat meat, fish, veg and fruit, nuts and some chillies and curries. I walk, swim a bit, ride a bike and play a little walking football and golf. I have a modest tummy, probably because I like a couple of beers. My heart, lungs and blood pressure are all excellent for 67 years of age. I don’t look great, but good enough to wear my swimming trunks without embarrassment.”
That’s the spirit. But another reader, who may or may not be called Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, struck a more defiant note: “The problem with ageing is that everything gets harder every year. It is necessary to grit one’s teeth and stagger on in the face of young people saying ‘age is only a number’. The secret weapons in this attritional warfare are good whisky, comfort foods, Douglas Murray and the Telegraph crossword.”
Malcolm Sargent concurred: “I live by the mantra that if I fancy it then it does me good.” What’s your approach? Let me know here, or head to our Your Say page on The Telegraph app. | Plan your day with the telegraph | Set your alarm to catch up with journalists on the Your Say page and listen to their analysis on our latest podcasts.
| Get full access Unlock Britain’s best news app and our award-winning website Enjoy four months’ free access to The Telegraph. Cancel at any time. | | Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including PlusWord, Sorted, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
The solution to yesterday’s clue was MARMALADE. Come back tomorrow for the answer to today’s puzzle. | | Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow. Chris Evans, Editor
P.S. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback here. | |
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