Geenstijl

Britser wordt een bericht eigenlijk niet uit het land van Keir Starmer Child Harmer

Komiek Graham Linehan (wiki) is de maker van serie Father Ted, en een van die komieken die de Rowling-afslag genomen heeft. Dat komt meestal neer op: niet heel grappig, maar heeft technisch wel gelijk. En ook dat mag dus niet meer, want het heerschap is bij terugkomst in 'zijn' land aangehouden door vijf agenten wegens de drie onderstaande tweets. Hij is vervolgens vrijgelaten op één borgvoorwaarde, namelijk dat hij niet Twittert zolang hij in zijn eigen land verblijft. Linehan tekent het voorval als volgt op:

"The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two—five. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets. (...) Entirely professional and even kind, but most had absolutely no idea what any of this was about. (...) They even arranged for a van to meet me on the tarmac so I didn't have to be perp-walked through the airport like a terrorist. Small mercies."

Nja, tot zo ver een beetje z'n arrestatie. Wat volgt is z'n verhoor op het politiebureau na een middagdutje in een politiecel.

"Later, during the interview itself, the tone shifted. The officer conducting it asked about each of the terrible tweets in turn, with the sort of earnest intensity usually reserved for discussing something serious like… oh, I dunno—crime? I explained that the ‘punch’ tweet was a serious point made with a joke. (...)

I explained that the ‘punch’ tweet was a serious point made with a joke. Men who enter women’s spaces ARE abusers and they need to be challenged every time. The ‘punch in the bollocks’ bit was about the height difference between men and women, the bollocks being closer to punch level for a woman defending her rights and certainly not a call to violence. (Not one of my best as one of the female officers said “We’re not THAT small”).

He mentioned “trans people”. I asked him what he meant by the phrase. “People who feel their gender is different than what was assigned at birth.” I said “Assigned at birth? Our sex isn’t assigned.” He called it semantics, I told him he was using activist language."

Nja, hoop getouwtrek, wat bijna resulteerde in HARTFALEN en werd ondervangen met een ziekenhuisbezoek.

"Eventually, a nurse came to check on me and found my blood pressure was over 200—stroke territory. The stress of being arrested for jokes was literally threatening my life! So I was escorted to A&E, where I write this now after spending about eight hours under observation.

The doctors suggested the high blood pressure was stress-related, combined with long-haul travel and lack of movement. I feel it may also have been a contributing factor that I have now spent eight years being targeted by trans activists working in tandem with police in a dedicated, perseistent harassment campaign because I refuse to believe that lesbians have cocks."

Helder! Wat volgde was zijn vrijlating, maar wel op borgvoorwaarde van een Twitterverbod zolang hij in het VK is. 

"I looked at the single bail condition: I am not to go on Twitter. That's it. No threats, no speeches about the seriousness of my crimes—just a legal gag order designed to shut me up while I’m the UK, and a demand I face a further interview in October."

En dat terwijl Linehan al deze ellende gewoon had kunnen voorkomen door Pakistaans te zijn.