Man arrested in the middle of the night for anti-Islam and Palestine post on 'X'.

On the 18th of September, Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Donald Trump at Chequers where they held a joint press conference. In a surprising plot twist, there was a moment where Starmer broke character and said something almost interesting. He declared that “Free speech is one of the founding values of the United Kingdom, and we protect it jealously and fiercely and always will. And we will bear down on any limits of free speech.”

A revelation, no doubt, to those in the UK who live in the reality-based community—who have observed that being arrested, prosecuted, or even imprisoned for ‘offensive’ social media posts is practically a weekly occurrence.

Which brings me to an account on ‘X’ that goes by the name ‘Northern Variant’. This individual has made the claim that North Yorkshire police arrested him in the middle of the night and took him to the police station to question him over the below post from August:

The image is a picture of a Palestine flag, overlaid with large white text reading ‘FUCK PALESTINE, FUCK HAMAS, FUCK ISLAM. WANT TO PROTEST? FUCK OFF TO MUSLIM COUNTRY & PROTEST’.

Thankfully, they had the presence of mind to record the arrest at his home, which you can watch below:

In the video, one of the police officers can be heard confirming that the (alleged) post was reported to them about a month ago by someone who didn't “appreciate” it. The officer then claims his “hate crime team” reviewed the post and confirmed “there are offences there we need to explore”.

It's at this point the officer states the time is 21:31 and informs Northern Variant that he will be placed under arrest in accordance with ‘section 19’. The officer goes on to explain this relates to the crime of “spreading racial hatred”. He's then told to gather his things and is taken to Harrogate police station for questioning—not before calmly asking the officer if arresting people for social media posts is why he signed up to the police.

There are a few observations to make here. Firstly, UK law does make the disastrous mistake of conflating religion and race in its ‘hate speech laws’. However, it's very difficult to see how the alleged offending post constitutes “spreading racial hatred”—unless you grant that anyone protesting for Palestine must be a Muslim. Which is prejudicial in its own right. Even then, you somehow need to explain how a religion magically becomes a race. Same with the ‘fuck Islam’ sentiment, because if that's what is deemed to have crossed the line, it appears the state is once again upholding de facto Islamic blasphemy laws.

I don't know anything about Northern Variant’s politics or the content of his character. I don't even like what they've posted if I'm being completely honest. I find it crude and a little obnoxious—as may you.

But that's entirely irrelevant. Offensive and obnoxious opinions are the only valuable health check for any nations’ relationship with free speech. Views that everyone likes don't need protection for obvious reasons.

This story follows the news that a man named Moussa Kadri will avoid jail time. You may remember Kadri as the man that responded to a peaceful protest involving the burning of a Qur'an by threatening to kill the protestor, then slashing at him with a knife until he fell to the ground—where he proceeded to kick and spit on him whilst ranting about insulting Islam. The judge essentially claimed Kadri was just a decent bloke who had simply lost his temper and decided to let him off with a suspended sentence and community service.

Whereas the peaceful Qur'an burning protestor who was violently attacked, Hamit Coskun, was convicted of a ‘religiously aggravated public order offence and fined £240. Incredibly, the fact that Coskun was violently attacked was actually used as evidence that he was guilty of a public order offence. You can watch me discuss this point with Andrew Doyle in the short clip below:

All this does is send a clear message that if you insult Islam the state will do everything it can to ensure you are punished, whereas if you commit actual violence because Islam was insulted, the state will do everything in its power to ensure you get of lightly.

The only acceptable solution to the UK’s draconian speech laws is to abolish them altogether and replace them with protections akin to the USA’s First Amendment. Because the police clearly can't be trusted to apply the minimum amount of discretion and sensible judgment necessary when receiving reports of mean words on the internet.

Just this month alone we have seen comedy writer Graham Linehan arrested by armed police at Heathrow Airport for social media posts. Not to mention an elderly cancer patient visited by the police and told that unless she apologised for her Facebook post that upset somebody, she would be taken to the police station for questioning.

In the video of his arrest, ‘Northern Variant’ alluded to the fact he would challenge this absurd police action with the help of The Free Speech Union—of which I am also a member. Taking legal action against illiberal, authoritarian state and employer overreach on free speech issues appears to be the only solution now. I will await the outcome of any legal challenges with great interest.

Update: It has come to my attention that the man arrested is called Pete North. He has his own Substack page where he has written an account of his arrest here.