The state’s war on free speech

Many citizens in the UK have been investigated, arrested and prosecuted for ‘offensive’ words.

A new report in the Times has revealed that police in the UK are arresting more than 12,000 people each year for words that cause offence. That’s over 30 arrests per day for speech crime.

So I thought it might be helpful to compile a list of UK citizens who have been visited, investigated or arrested by the police for speech that was deemed ‘offensive’. The vast majority of cases have not been reported in the press, and so I am only drawing on those in the public domain. This is by no means a comprehensive list. Please feel free to add more in the comments!

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• In January 2019, Harry Miller was contacted by Humberside Police for retweeting a poem that was interpreted as ‘transphobic’. Miller asked why he was being investigated and why the unnamed complainant was being described as a ‘victim’ if no crime had been committed. The officer replied: ‘We need to check your thinking’.

• In February 2025, school administrator Helen Jones was visited by Greater Manchester Police after posting criticisms of Labour politicians on Facebook, specifically calling for the resignation of local councillors involved in a WhatsApp scandal. Officers later confirmed that she hadn’t committed any crime.

• In July 2022, women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen was visited by Wiltshire Police officers at her home for a social media post that was deemed ‘untoward about paedophiles’. The police later admitted that the visit was ‘not wholly appropriate’.
  

  

  Harry Miller (left) and Kellie-Jay Keen (right).

• In May 2016, YouTuber Markus Meechan (aka ‘Count Dankula’) was arrested for posting a comedy video in which he taught his girlfriend’s pug to perform a Nazi salute and react excitedly to the phrase ‘gas the Jews’. He was later found guilty in court and fined £800.

• In September 2016, former footballer Paul Gascoigne was found guilty in a criminal court of racially aggravated abuse, after a joke he made during a stop on his An Evening with Gazza tour at Wolverhampton Civic Hall. At one point during the show, he had turned to Errol Rowe, a black security guard, and said, ‘Can you smile please, because I can’t see you’. For this, Gascoigne was fined £1,000 and forced to pay a further £1,000 in compensation to Rowe.

• In March 2025, Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine were arrested and locked in a cell for eight hours for criticising the policies of their daughter’s school in emails and a WhatsApp group. Six police officers had turned up to their house to make the arrest. The case was dropped after a five-week investigation.

• In February 2021, Joseph Kelly was arrested and charged (and later found guilty in court) for a tweet about the late Captain Tom Moore that was deemed ‘grossly offensive’.

  

  Markus Meechan (left) and Paul Gascoigne (right).

• In October 2024, Lucy Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, was sentenced to 31 months in prison after an offensive tweet about burning hotels housing asylum seekers in the wake of the Southport murders.

• In July 2024, former Royal Marine Jamie Michael posted a video online which criticised illegal migration and called for peaceful protest. He was arrested and charged and later found not guilty in court.

• In July 2022, army veteran Darren Brady was arrested and handcuffed for ‘causing anxiety’ by posting an image of four Progress Pride flags arranged into a swastika. Brady had shared the meme which had been previously posted by actor Laurence Fox in protest against the ‘hectoring authoritarianism’ of Pride month.

• In June 2019, comedian Jo Brand was investigated by police after an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Heresy programme. She had joked about throwing battery acid at right-wing politicians.

• In February 2020, Kate Scottow was convicted under the Communications Act for referring to a transgender individual who identified as a woman as ‘he’ on social media. This was later overturned on appeal.
  

  

  Jo Brand (left) and Jamie Michael (right).

• In April 2018, teenager Chelsea Russell was convicted for quoting rap lyrics containing racially offensive language on her Instagram page as a tribute to a dead friend. She was given a community order and placed on curfew, which was later overturned on appeal.

• In May 2010, Paul Chambers was found guilty of sending a joke tweet in which he said he would blow up an airport in Doncaster after it closed due to heavy snowfall. The case only went ahead at the insistence of the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer.

• In August 2024, Lee Joseph Dunn was sentenced to 8 weeks in jail for posting three memes on Facebook that were considered ‘grossly offensive’. The most objectionable of the memes depicted a group of knife-wielding immigrants with the caption ‘Coming to a town near you’.

• In 2012, teenager Matthew Woods was imprisoned for three months for posting offensive jokes on Facebook. He had apparently been drunk at the time, and the material had been copied from the website ‘Sickipedia’.
  

  

  Allison Pearson (left) and Maya Forstater (right).

• In November 2024, journalist Allison Pearson was visited by police and investigated for a year-old social media post that some had found offensive. The visiting officers would not provide any details of the specific post, which is why she later described the experience as ‘Kafkaesque’.

• In August 2023, women’s rights campaigner Maya Forstater was investigated by police for a tweet about a trans-identified male doctor examining female patients without their informed consent. The investigation was dropped after 15 months.

• In September 2022, Christian preacher David McConnell was found guilty of harassment for ‘misgendering’. He had referred to a trans-identified male as a ‘man’ and a ‘gentleman’. His conviction was later overturned.

• Journalist Caroline Farrow was subjected to a 6-month-long investigation by police following an appearance on ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’. She had apparently ‘misgendered’ another contributor’s trans-identified child.

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