Graham Linehan arrested on arrival at Heathrow Part 4

[IDareSay]

These threads have mostly been used to follow the case that has taken place at Westminster Magistrate's Court over the 4th and 5th September, (and will continue on the 29th October), but were created to follow the fallout of Graham's arrest at Heathrow on his return to the UK for this court case last week, and what is allegedly a conspiracy of TRAs to intimidate and harass a number of people, including Graham, with the alleged support of various police services.

He is currently on trial for alleged harassment of a trans identified male and criminal damage to the man's phone. The charges stem from a series of events in October 2024 at Battle of Ideas.

Part 1 here
Part 2 here
Part 3 here
Graham's account of the arrest here
You can support his Substack here
Or buy him a coffee here

Free Speech Union are running a fundraiser to support a claim against the Met in reference to the Heathrow arrest. Just search FSU and Graham Linehan fundraiser and it should be easy to find. At the time of posting it has reached 64% of its stretch target.
The FSU have managed to get the bail condition that @Glinner must not post on X removed, so he is now freely posting on there again.

Most of the mainstream media have reported on the case, but none have covered it as well as Nick Wallis. Follow him on X for live posting from the court again on 29th October.
You can support Nick here (posted Friday 5th September):
"I am deeply grateful to everyone who has seen fit to bung me the cost of a coffee, a pint or even a bloody London pint since I found out I was able to come back today. If you think you can afford to make a small donation, there’s more info here:"
https://store29806256.company.site

This is something I've thought for a very long time. You know how researchers have found that the vast bulk of crime in this country is carried out by a small number of criminals? And how there is a small number of troublesome/troubled families that cause a disproportionate amount of work for children's services, police and other agencies?

It's exactly the same with transactivists. There are at most a couple of dozen (probably fewer) who are responsible for the bulk of the threats, the aggression, the reporting to the police, the reporting to employers, the letters and calls to venues etc. They have multiple sock puppets and they turn up on here as well to cause provocation, probably in the hope of Mumsnet getting sued or closed down.

The amazing thing is how successful they have been. Arts venues and libraries and police and the rest are all so frightened of them that they will simply do their bidding. And that's what I don't understand, really, because at some point you'd think it would dawn on these people (the police especially) that what they're dealing with is a handful of very aggressive, disturbed men, some of whom have criminal records.

Yeah, I don't think Graham always works in his own best interest. He will become obsessive about a particular cause (not to relitigate whatever Gamergate was about, but you would not believe what a bore he was about it); and he's quick to anger and lets himself be goaded into saying or doing things that are unwise.

I've mentioned before, I unfollowed him when he decided Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal were the numero uno enemies of the people - and I'm probably closer to his position than theirs, and I understand he was aggrieved that they were uncomplimentary about him on their podcast and didn't offer him a right to reply - but my god he went on and on and on about it until he'd proved their point about how obsessive and unreasonable and self-sabotaging he can be.

So I've never been one of those people who had a problem with JKR keeping her distance - she picks her fights very strategically and he does not.

But having said all that I'm still on his side and, for this particular fight with this cast of characters, he may not be our platonic ideal of a hero but he might just be the hero we need.

@borntobequiet

I think it's because if anal sex. Many men have a fantasy/desire to do anal but many women don't. TW complain of chasers wanting them only for sex and I think it's true. Men can kid themselves they are having (anal)sex with a woman when they are with a TW, once they're done, off they go.

I think he should write another book. Tough Crowd was a great read. Particularly the parts about his earlier career . But also the actual nuts and bolts stuff about writing for TV. Anyone involved in that field would find it very helpful. Hint hint.

I agree with ops about him spending too much time on X. As someone who should put the bloody phone down myself....

It's exactly the same with transactivists. There are at most a couple of dozen (probably fewer) who are responsible for the bulk of the threats, the aggression, the reporting to the police, the reporting to employers, the letters and calls to venues etc. They have multiple sock puppets and they turn up on here as well to cause provocation, probably in the hope of Mumsnet getting sued or closed down.

I used to follow a lot of the cancellation stuff in pop culture, and the remarkable thing was that the cancel mobs often weren't mobs at all. We had a shorthand phrase "the 12 psychos on Twitter" and it wasn't always the same 12 people, but that gave you an idea. A small number of people driving it, backed up by a lot of social media slacktivists who wanted to be part of whatever the mob was angry about this week.

In a big cultural space like Harry Potter fandom, it might have been 200 psychos on Twitter.

In a small and declining space like comic books... the comic industry could have got rid of 80% of its drama just by firing Gail Simone, but for some unaccountable reason Marvel and DC were scared of her and kept offering her work.

And these days the 12 psychos are all on Bluesky.

Partly I think it's that companies (goverment agencies, the police, whoever) respond to the 12 people making complaints and don't consider the millions who don't. Basic elite theory: an organised minority beats an unorganised majority.

But if it's a handful of people wasting police time with vexatious complaints, I think we have to look at the incentive structure that encourages the police to humour them.

One of the worst panels I ever had to sit on which resulted in a man’s dismissal was related to images of the sexual abuse of animals (by men) that he’d been watching at work, on his work PC. Sometimes the abuse was of animals and women at the same time.

The discovery (initiated by the cleaners … go figure) then forced IT to have to watch it, and then his manager, the investigating officer and his team, and our panel and support staff. Absolutely sickening. But presumably not so for the culprit.

Graham isn't stupid.

The move to get political refugee status rather than pursue other methods to get permanent residency in the US is at least partially motivated by the fact it's a smart career move that plays to the current political climate in the US.

To say his career is dead is playing the game of believing everything you are told without question. It uses the same blind sympathy tactic.

Again this is where Glinner has had conflict with some of the other figures in the GC movement who haven't had the benefits that his high social status as a well known TV writer afforded him.

Linehan isn't wrong in what he says. It's not wrong to say he's lost a lot, but he clearly hasn't lost everything. (He sold his £800,000 home in London to move to Arizona). This also doesn't conflict with the fact that the way he says it is sometimes problematic, the level of addiction he seems to have with the subject is troubling and the way it looks like he's actively begging for money (from women who are far less well off) to maintain his luxury lifestyle rather than to simply keep the lights on.

It's part of the 'its a big more complicated than that' conversation.

I do think Graham Linehan is an icon, a genius and a hero. But like many great artists he also has this other side which is something of a disaster zone.

I don't expect him to be perfect. We shouldn't play the game of the perfect victim either. He's human.

It's his humanity that makes him real and credible and believable when it matters. He's relatable to a lot of normal people in a way that someone polished and does 'all the right things' sometimes isn't.

And ultimately he clearly is a victim of a fairly major injustice of police incompetence and bias however you cut it. He HAS been harassed and the police HAVE failed him.

I feel very uncomfortable about how this has taken off in America, given the political interest on the right there in presenting the UK as an enemy of free speech.

Free speech in the US looks even more limited in respect of the trans issue than it is here. And their alleged concern with UK free speech seems to be focused on right-wing issues such as undermining abortion rights and demonising immigrants. I wouldn't want the Linehan issue to give grist or cash to their mill.

I'm doubly uncomfortable now that I have read here about the large amounts of funds coming in in his support.

Regarding him personally, I hugely sympathise with him and have been grateful for his consistent support for women. But I've long felt that his stunts and language are on balance unhelpful. I unfollowed him on Twitter fairly early on because it seemed that he was someone whose behaviour had been shaped as much by the very worst of twitter as by his loyalty to the GC cause. It must be painful to be him and it is also painful to follow him and experience his angry, hurt obsessiveness vicariously. He seems almost like Twitter personified, enraged and paralysed by the polarisation and hostility that it generates.

There's been studies on some of the social media conspiracy ideas and where they originated. They found they originated from something like just seven accounts and then were amplified.

So it's really not unbelievable in the slightest. There is some research basis for this.

I do think we are yet to get to grips with this issue and focusing on the core of such online stories and how they can be so disruptive to reality through disinformation.

"I don't expect him to be perfect. We shouldn't play the game of the perfect victim either. He's human.
It's his humanity that makes him real and credible and believable when it matters. He's relatable to a lot of normal people in a way that someone polished and does 'all the right things' sometimes isn't.
And ultimately he clearly is a victim of a fairly major injustice of police incompetence and bias however you cut it. He HAS been harassed and the police HAVE failed him."

I agree with you on this @RedToothBrush

Being victimised and harassed, with the powers that be not only refusing to see it but also colluding in it, is enough to drive anyone around the bend frankly (I'm not saying you are round the bend @glinner !)

I have experienced it myself, when people just refuse to see what is right in front of their face, and you know they know. It is incredibly frustrating and frankly disturbing to one's equilibrium.

As she so often does, Victoria Smith nails it:
"Even if tomorrow every single person were to say “yes, you were right”, it won’t restore the loss of trust. Because we know that you knew we were right all along. You just didn’t think we mattered enough to say so. Instead of telling us how scared you were, why not think about what this has felt like for us?"

https://thecritic.co.uk/why-malcolm-gladwells-trans-retraction-wont-ever-be-enough/

I think he's suffering from PTSD, he's on anxiety meds and his hands shake in interviews. I do think it's had an awful effect on him psychologically and he would be better off if he could take a step back from the whole thing but I suppose it's a big part of his life. He's in too deep. I'm a bit like this when I see an injustice too and it gets to me, it's hard to let go and not take on the fight, but I'm also not built for it really. It's the coming so close to pure malevolence aspect. It's even hard to just read about.
It would help if he was more strategic about it but it doesn't seem to be in his personality. But I'm grateful he was willing to tackle this head on as so many others turned away.

If anyone missed it - The Two Matts podcast devoted the second half of their main episode this week to Glinner, and I thought it was fair and balanced: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/648c40140701dc00113b4626

Having braced for Rory and Alistair-style centrist dad 'fault on both sides' bloviating I was very pleasantly surprised.

One of the problems working class women in particular have is precisely because they fall into this same bracket.

It IS the reason why they are more vulnerable and are less likely to be believed. And instead be criminalised themselves.

Sandie Peggie is another good example of the same phenomenon and how it's used against her to deflect against institutional level failures.

It is the 'mark of the landyards' to fail to listen to what people are saying and to put aside the way they say it or their other flaws and to examine the greater picture and whether it contains the all important grains of truth.

One of the very shocking things we see repeated on MN is just how much lack of awareness there is about how coercive control, DARVO and abusive relationships manifest from the police, the courts, social services and various other agencies.

It's a reoccurring theme.

It's one where if you aren't of a high enough social status these authorities just don't work for you, often because they have no concept of the lived experience and pressure of people in that environment because of class differences and these is this victim blamed assumption that 'they brought it on themselves'.

Except of course, it's a bit more complicated than that, and this is a view which is more akin to Victoria Middle Class Morality.

It's not lost on me, that this seems to have re-emerged at a time where the gap between the richest and poorest in society has widened and reached it's highest levels since Victorian times.

There is much to reflect on here on where we are, how we got here and where we are going...

I imagine Glinner would have to stay somewhere secure - given the psychos intent on destroying him - so he wouldn’t have been able to rent an airbnb, etc.

I mean it’s not like he’d have confidence in the police to protect him…

Being victimised and harassed, with the powers that be not only refusing to see it but also colluding in it, is enough to drive anyone around the bend frankly (I'm not saying you are round the bend !)
I have experienced it myself, when people just refuse to see what is right in front of their face, and you know they know. It is incredibly frustrating and frankly disturbing to one's equilibrium.

Yes, I completely agree with all this. It isn't just the dynamics of Twitter that have contributed to the trajectory of glinner's career in relation to trans issues. It is the whole gaslighting unrealism. Literally maddening.

I do often wonder about whether we have some repeat offenders here, (it's either that it's a returning user who would rather start again with 0 social credit than whatever phenomenal social overdraft their previous username accumulated, or it's someone with an almost identical style and habits) but it's discouraged by site rules to go troll hunting, so I don't comment.

I mean it's completely obvious that at least some are actually returning/repeat posters with new usernames and histories they don't want to own up to, but getting into it is like playing chess with a pigeon. You get shit on your hands and they just strut about to enjoy knocking the pieces over.

So yeah, I'm not trying to say that the repeat offending trolls on here are acting like some hapless junkie recidivist, but if the hat fits...

I think this is something that occurs to all of us after a fairly short time on here, @BezMills. Maybe there's a TRAtroll handbook somewhere, for nuisances like Margarita/Barley/Felix/Chris (or whatever his nom de guerre is this week) so they can get their nonsense ducks in a row, a style guide for morons - the Unequal Treatment Bench Book, maybe?

The most serious troublemakers in schools are like this. Profligate offenders, undeterred by sanctions and punishment, often enabled by people who are well-meaning or unaffected by their behaviour, malicious, vengeful, and determined in their desire to break rules and hurt or distress others.

And if they don’t like your lessons, it’s your fault for not engaging them.

It's misogyny innit

We aren’t allowed to publicly ‘troll hunt’ on MN. But we are supposed to report any suspicions to MNHQ, so they can ‘look behind the scenes’. It’s 100% up to them to decide if someone is a troll or PBP but if you see something that seems off and don’t report then they simply don’t know about it.

Of course sometimes pretty much by mutual assent we don’t report someone who is being goady, spouting misinformation etc “operation let them speak” but there may be some bad faith posters who MNHQ would really want to know about.

My experience with online trolls / gaming is they are obsessive, they have about a zillion online identities, they are persistent, they see it as winning, they read Sun Tzu and therefore believe they are at war and any method is fair game as it's all about winning.

They don't give up until they are adequately dealt with.

The government has very little understanding of this area of our society. They are victims of it, but haven't really seen it up close in terms of seeing individuals boast about it and admit the degrees to what they have done.

People who are within those circles tend to be techies or deal in cyber security. Parliament has failed to attract anyone with a high level of understanding of this area because they are all still in their early 40s or younger. It's very much a generational thing. The oldest are in good jobs which frankly pay better than MPs but with less aggro. There's no incentive for them to go into politics yet as they still have mortgages to pay.

That MAY change in the next decade as they pay off the mortgage and start to take early retirement if they can afford it.

But until then, parliament remains a generation separated from this world and no real understanding of it at a level to start being able to have the meaningful conversations they need to have.

I have to say I find debates over online safety and banning things relating to technology utterly missing in the fundamental aspects of understanding some of the misogyny and obsession that is in that world.

The 'normal rules' of what 'normal people' think and do, simply don't apply. It's a parallel world to the real world - it's like people (mainly men) spent too much time playing war games, and now see the real world through that same lens and don't believe real world rules (such as laws) apply. If you can get around those rules, like you can in online gaming, you win so those rules don't matter especially since the police are too fucking thick to see what you are doing. It adds to that feeling of power. And yep most are on a massive fucking power trip.

Yes, great post Red. I’ve noticed this tendency with certain men online in general.

Being victimised and harassed, with the powers that be not only refusing to see it but also colluding in it, is enough to drive anyone around the bend frankly (I'm not saying you are round the bend !)
I have experienced it myself, when people just refuse to see what is right in front of their face, and you know they know. It is incredibly frustrating and frankly disturbing to one's equilibrium.

this is so true.

So many women have found themselves in the position where they sound quite mad. The worst of conspiracy theorists, or prejudiced and bigoted.

People simply don't believe the extent of transactivism. Thread after thread of how posters have lost friends, or fallen out with family members, purely on the basis of this issue. It's quite hard to stay calm when people look at you as though you've taken leave of your senses - and in the worst way possible.

And, for some people, the scales falling has been a journey. They've listened to rational arguments, evidence, logic. And have reached 'peak trans' fairly incrementally.

For others, it's quite instant. They recognise the tactics, the abuse, and, quite crucially, the fetish immediately. No journey necessary, no steps to take, they go from A-Z in a heartbeat.

And it's that recognition that is hard to persuade others to see, when they have been inculcated over be kind, and this is just like being gay.

You know that to them you sound like a raving mad bigot.

But I think a lot of men see it quicker than women. They're not socialised to listen to their inner Beryl, because they don't have one. And secondly, they are under no illusions quite how far men's sex drive will take them.

Graham Linehan's comedy is whimsical and eccentric, but nonetheless, he has produced something that everybody recognises instantly. That takes huge insight, in my opinion, into the dynamites of personality and inner characteristics. You have to get people in order to turn them into something so familiar yet utterly bizarre at the same time.

So i've often wondered why, given that insight, he was relatively unarmed against the baiting of transactivists.

And it could just be as simple as a very well off, successful, popular and feted man simply never needing those skills in a patriarchal environment.

I often felt that Graham thought that as soon as he said something it would all be fine. I mean, a lot of us did, to be fair. As soon as the headlines happen, it will all be over. As soon as this case is won, that will be the end. And he couldn't bloody believe it when it wasn't.

His incredulity came across quite a lot in the beginning.

Women, on the other hand, are very used to having to justify their every waking moment and not being believed even then.

So frustrated as we were, it kind of felt par for the course.

Maybe the silver lining of sexism is that women just have to keep their arsenal well stocked. When men don't even know where the key is.

He thought he could fight them and that he'd be taken seriously as he was a man.

Men assume they will always be listened to because it's their lived experience. They are.

That in itself would have shocked him. He's never been on that side of things.

Women are used to being Cassandra.

Everyone is getting harmed now, and there is a wave of hurt on the horizon that hasn't even started yet.

It has completely undermined the trust people have in important institutions; health, police, education and lawmakers. Its going to take decades to put that right.

Noone is covering themselves in glory either now we are getting to the desperate part. I do believe this is really going to affect same-sex acceptance and thats doubly difficult for lesbians .

I see the Rainbow Flag as a sign of misogny now and I won't support any business that has it displayed. We had a cheesecake day at work and all the cheesecakes (34-ish) were eaten except for the two (politically motivated) rainbow cheesecakes which only had a couple of slices taken out of them.

What a fucking mess