The fight for freedom of speech knows no borders. That became abundantly clear this past week in Great Britain and in Congress.
Graham Linehan, a comedian and producer known for the U.K. sitcom “Father Ted,” penned three X posts in April criticizing transgenderism while he was in Arizona.
When he flew to London’s Heathrow Airport on Sept. 1, this Irish citizen was met by five armed police officers, who arrested him on suspicion of inciting violence.
Released on bail, he was told “not to go on Twitter.”
One of his posts said: “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.” Not nice, but is posting it a criminal act worthy of arrest?
Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom’s Reform UK party, told the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 3, 2025, that Mr. Linehan’s arrest should worry everyone.
“He’s an Irish citizen,” Mr. Farage said. “This could happen to any American man or woman that goes to Heathrow that has said things online that the British government and British police don’t like.
“At what point did we become North Korea? Well, I think the Irish comedy writer found that out two days ago at Heathrow Airport.”
So, how did Time magazine handle this shocking turn of events?
Their headline: “British Lawmaker Nigel Farage Called a ‘Putin-Loving Free Speech Impostor’ and ‘Trump Sycophant’ in Congress.”
Instead of concentrating on Mr. Farage’s testimony, the story centered on the attack on Mr. Farage by Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat.
Mr. Raskin was a leader of the Jan. 6 Committee, which suppressed defense witnesses and edited videos to create false impressions about the U.S. Capitol riot in 2021. He also led the second impeachment effort against Mr. Trump and was issued a pardon by outgoing President Biden. Mr. Raskin is a piece of work.
Not to be outdone, Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat, left no doubt as to his party’s contempt for America’s founding principles during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing the same day. Responding to a State Department nominee’s comment about the United States being founded on the principle that rights come from God, not the government, Kaine said this:
“The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator – that’s what the Iranian government believes,” Kaine said.
“It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Shariah law and targets Sunnis, Bahá’ís, Jews, Christians, and other religious minorities. And they do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator. So the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”
Perhaps Mr. Kaine forgot that another son of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Another Virginian, James Madison, was the primary author of the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, with the First Amendment’s protections of the freedoms of religion, speech, assembly, and the press.
In 1785, Madison wrote, “It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent. … to the claims of Civil Society.”
What sets America apart from the bloody, atheist uprising in revolutionary France and subsequent communist and socialist revolutions, is the idea that rights come from God, not man. No government can create them, but it must protect them to be legitimate.
Getting back to Mr. Raskin, he railed against the Trump administration for defunding public broadcasting, a tax-supported subsidiary of the Democratic Party.
“There is a free speech crisis in America today, but there’s no free speech crisis in Britain,” Mr. Raskin claimed.
He couldn’t be more wrong.
In the United States, a healthy, free speech backlash is growing against woke suppression of the truth about American history, COVID-19, climate hysteria, election rigging, and the LGBTQ movement’s many absurd demands, especially with regard to transgenderism.
Democrats and their sycophantic media are losing their hold on the public. The party’s approval rating is now well below 30%.
Meanwhile, in merry old England and Scotland, Christians are being arrested for silently praying at abortion clinics and evangelizing at LGBTQ pride parades. Officials ruthlessly suppress news about immigrant “grooming gangs” that have raped thousands of young girls in England.
Negative comments about illegal immigration or transgenderism can trigger arrests.
It’s probably only because she’s a celebrity that Britain’s “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling has not been marched away in handcuffs over her bold social media posts explaining why transgenderism is fraudulent and dangerous.
Mr. Farage’s Reform UK is outshining the wimpy Conservatives and is ahead in the polls. In the next election, this third force may well replace Prime Minister Keir Starma’s repressive Labor regime.
As Mr. Linehan’s arrest richly illustrates, it’s time for the U.K. to have an American-style revolution, this time with ballots instead of muskets.
This column was first published at the Washington Times.