Following Glinner’s arrest which I, of course, covered in the last update and in my one off piece I have been hit with loads of good pieces so I am going off the blocks early again to bring you some of those as a Part 1 and tomorrow or Friday I hope to bring you other news as a Part 2 (and, no doubt, a bit more about Glinner!). But I am going to return to the film season and Terf Island Discs 😊
We are continuing with Dusty’s film series and the latest version of the list is here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/empire-of-light-dustys-film-series
Please let us have your suggestions for films but please check the list first to see if it is there already. I am updating the list as we go along. We are going through them alphabetically and have got to I.
Next up is one of my all time favourite films, In The Heat Of The Night (1967).
Black detective, Virgil Tibbs from Philadelphia (Sidney Poitier) is visiting his mum in a small town in Mississippi when he gets embroiled in a murder investigation and has to work with the racist sheriff, Sheriff Gillespie ( Rod Steiger). To cut a long story short, Gillespie is basically won over by Tibbs.
Warren Oates is Officer Sam Wood
Lee Grant is Mrs. Colbert
Thanks to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
The MSM have had to address the issue of Glinner’s arrest and there is a lot of outrage out there! Even Wes Streeting, the Health Minister, seems doubtful about what has happened. Maybe this is a tipping point. Let’s see what happens tomorrow when Glinner is before the magistrates’ court in Westminster to face ridiculous charges which originate from the same trans activist who caused this current arrest. All thoughts gratefully received.
Excellent take on it all by Leo Kearse. I like his idea that we could keep the hate speech laws in place long enough after a new Government ( we hope) is in power to allow us to put some ‘progressives’ behind bars😂
A message from the Free Speech Union who are representing Glinner:
You may have already heard about what happened to Graham Linehan on Monday. After getting off a nine-hour transatlantic flight, he was met at Heathrow by five armed police officers, arrested, interrogated and held in a cell for 16 hours. He was only released when his blood pressure became so high he had to be rushed to A&E at 4am.
What had he done wrong? Threatened to blow up the plane? Plotted to steal the Crown Jewels? Been found with indecent images of children? No. His 'crime' was to have posted three tweets taking the Mickey out of trans rights activists. That's it. The police haven't yet charged him -- he’s under 'investigation' -- and in the meantime he’s been released on bail on condition he stays off X.
Graham says: “This was a horrible glimpse of the dystopian clown show that Britain has become. But one thing helped me get through it, which is knowing I have the Free Speech Union in my corner. They hired a crack lawyer to look after me – he's trying to get the gagging order lifted – and if this ever goes to trial they'll get a top barrister to defend me. The FSU will also support me by providing lawyers to advise on a claim against the Met Police for wrongful arrest and wrongful imprisonment in the hope that no one else is treated like a terrorist for speaking their mind on social media.”
Can I ask you to donate to the fundraiser we’ve set up to pay Graham’s legal costs? With your help, we'll raise enough money to pay for his expenses in this case as well as any outstanding expenses in another case being brought against him at the behest of a trans rights activist. And if there's anything left over, it will be spent on defending other people who find themselves in a police cell for exercising their right to free speech and pushing back against state interference with free speech more widely.
We have to fight this all-out assault on freedom of expression. The police shouldn't be wasting their time arresting people for hurty words when there are actual crimes they could be investigating, such as the epidemic of violence against women and girls. They should be policing our streets, not our tweets.
But until the authorities get their priorities straight, the only thing standing between people like Graham and a prison cell is the Free Speech Union. We’ve fought 4,500 cases in the past five years and have never been busier. We’re also taking on more and more cases in which people are being arrested for social media posts and, in some cases, charged with speech offences. Please do give what you can here.
With kind regards,
Lord Young of Acton
General Secretary
The Free Speech Union
Andrew Doyle on his substack writes:
The arrest of Graham Linehan should be a turning point
When a comedy writer is seized by armed police over tweets, Britain’s free speech crisis can no longer be ignored.
Sep 03, 2025
How many more controversies will it take? The arrest of comedy writer Graham Linehan by five armed police officers as he landed at Heathrow Airport has become an international news story because it so self-evidently tyrannical. The stress of the ordeal raised his blood pressure to an alarming degree and he was rushed to hospital. With the help of the Free Speech Union, Graham is now suing the Metropolitan Police. You can donate to his crowdfunder here.
It is reassuring to see that some action is being taken against such chilling state overreach, but when will our politicians follow suit? Many of us have been warning about this ongoing assault on liberty for many years, and at every watershed moment we’ve been led to believe that something will be done. Then, inevitably, the ‘blob’ is activated and swallows up any potential for progress in its viscous and undulating folds.
So when Sir Mark Rowley, head of the Metropolitan Police, complains that the police are acting on unclear laws, and that the responsibility for the maltreatment of the likes of Graham lies with those in power, he’s overlooking the impact of the activist middlemen. Let’s not forget that the Home Office has twice instructed the College of Policing to stop the recording of ‘non-crime hate incidents’ (NCHIs) and has been ignored. Or that the chairman of the College of Policing, Lord Herbert, said the solution to the complaints about NCHIs might be to rename them. As though the public’s concerns about this brazen authoritarianism might be assuaged with a touch of rebranding.
The full piece is here:
https://www.andrewdoyle.org/p/the-arrest-of-graham-linehan-should
Michael Deacon in The Telegraph ( Graham Linehan’s arrest proves that trans ideology is a threat to us all 03 September) reports:
So let’s get this straight. If a mugger snatches your phone, the police will do nothing. If burglars ransack your home, the police will do nothing. If your daughter is raped by a grooming gang, the police will do nothing.
But if you write a social media post that offends someone who identifies as transgender, you’ll be abruptly set upon by five armed officers.
Obviously, it shouldn’t need saying that the arrest of Graham Linehan, the award-winning comedy writer and co-creator of Father Ted, brings shame on the police and makes our country look like a tinpot dictatorship. Nonetheless, I believe that this disgraceful episode will at least have one upside. Because it demolishes, once and for all, one of trans activism’s most subtly pernicious arguments.
Speak out against the notion that biological males should be allowed in women’s changing rooms and inevitably you’ll be deluged with abuse. Some disciples of trans ideology, however, will take a less aggressive approach and ask: “Why do you care, anyway? Trans people are a tiny minority, who account for less than one per cent of the population. So how do these issues affect you?”
Well, now the whole nation can see the answer. These issues affect every last one of us – because they imperil our freedom of speech. Defy the gender fanatics and you too could find yourself surrounded by gun-toting policemen. Graham Linehan’s arrest, therefore, proves that trans ideology is a threat to us all.
In fact, it always has been – because the silencing of free speech is integral to trans activism. Back in 2015, Stonewall – the powerful LGBTQIA+ lobby group – decided that, when it came to trans issues, its mantra would be “no debate”. And that refusal to brook any dissent has been chillingly effective. The main reason that trans activism has been able to hold such sway over our society is that, even today, five months after the Supreme Court helpfully confirmed that, under the law, women are actually female, many people remain too frightened to say what they really think about it.
Even celebrated thinkers have struggled to pluck up the courage. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and other bestselling analyses of sociological trends, has just confessed that, until recently, he felt too “cowed” to admit that he thinks male trans athletes should be barred from female sports. If a man as rich and successful as Mr Gladwell can fear the consequences of rejecting trans orthodoxy, little wonder that ordinary members of the public keep quiet.
The full piece is here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/099d8629983cb281
Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform Party, addresses a Congressional committee about Glinner’s arrest:
Steerpike in The Spectator ( Zack Polanski: the police were right to arrest Graham Linehan 3 September 2025) writes:
The arrest of comedian Graham Linehan at Heathrow Airport this week over his Twitter posts sparked outrage across the country – but you can count on the Greens to take an opposing view. While shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has condemned the move as ‘ridiculous’ and Health Secretary Wes Streeting has even suggested the law could be changed to ensure forces are more focused on tackling in-person crime, the new leader of the Greens, Zack Polanski, told the Beeb that he, er, backs the decision.
The full piece is here:
Dusty - my advice to any Terfs still in the Green Party - RUNNNNN!!!!!!! Mind you that’s my advice to any Terfs in the Labour Party or the Liberal Democrats.
Matt Goodwin writes on his substack:
The UK's Spiralling Free Speech Crisis
Another day, another shocking case
Sep 03, 2025
………
“We’ve had free speech for a very long time, it will last a long time, and we are very proud of that”. This is how Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded to President Trump’s and JD Vance’s suggestion that the UK has a problem with free speech, just a few months ago in the Oval Office.
Now fast forward to today.
The prominent comedian and co-creator of Father Ted, Graham Linehan, was just arrested on his return to the UK, from America, by five armed police officers.
Why?
He was arrested ‘on suspicion of inciting violence, in relation to posts on Twitter/X’.
Yes, you read that right.
A prominent comedian was just met and arrested by five armed police officers because of some views he posted on X.
What did he post, exactly?
He said if ‘a trans-identified male is in a female-only space he is committing a violent abusive act’. He said people who witness this act should ‘call the cops’ and, if all else fails, ‘punch him in the balls’. And he described trans rights protestors as ‘misogynists and homophobes’, adding: ‘F*** em’.
Sorry, but are we seriously meant to believe these posts are ‘inciting violence’?
And are we seriously meant to believe it is somehow acceptable, in modern Britain, that somebody who shares these views should be arrested by armed police, hauled off to a police station, and told he cannot share anything else online?
Does this look like Britain, the home of free speech, free expression, and individual liberty, to you? Of course not. It looks like a dystopian hell-hole.
Five armed police officers is who you send to arrest members of Islamic State and hardened criminals who pose a serious threat to the public, not a popular comedian, well-known for his gender critical views, who happens to say something challenging.
What on earth was London’s Metropolitan police thinking? And as journalist Sam Ashworth-Hayes asks: ‘What does it say about Britain when mocking purveyors of transgender ideology results in your arrest by gun-toting officers of the law?’
Yet, while shocking, this is not just about a single case.
What all this symbolises, what all this represents, as I’ve written before, is a much broader and longer-term attack on free speech on these islands and which our utterly hapless leaders, including Keir Starmer, continue to deny is happening.
On one level, as my colleague Professor Frank Furedi points out, what this case proves beyond doubt is that a large part of UK police has become politicised and radicalised.
Instead of remaining politically neutral, police in the UK have essentially morphed into a kind of politically-motivated subdivision of the radical “progressive” crusade, having been successfully infiltrated over the years by militant groups, like Stonewall.
The full piece is here:
Lord Toby Young is interviewed on Spectator TV and argues that there is no offence that Glinner could possibly have committed arising from his three tweets:
How is the view from Australia? Here is Gabriella Power on Sky News Australia interviewing James Billot, editor of Unherd:
What do they think in the States, the home of the First Amendment? Here’s Fox News:
And finally Megyn Kelly:
I could go on but I’ll end it there - is this a tipping point on the question of free speech in the UK ? All thoughts gratefully received.
Terf Island Discs
Thanks to an excellent suggestion from Tenaciously Terfin, we have paused Endpieces for the time being and we are giving Tenaciously and Liz a well earned rest from their hard work. So , since 07 July, we have been running Terf Island Discs.
Several readers have chosen up to 4 songs or pieces of music each and we are going through those one at a time in each update. This is going so well that I am going to continue it a bit further and you can now choose up to 6 songs or pieces of music each. They need to be reasonably short. We can’t expect to have readers listening to the whole of Tchaikovsky's piano concerto in B flat minor, albeit it is magnificent.
They don’t have to be from Terf Island BTW - anywhere in the world 😊
Please send links as well if you can.
So for those who have already chosen 4, please choose 2 more and, if you have not yet taken part, please choose 6!! If you repeat a song or piece of music that has already been chosen, I’ll let you know and you can choose another one. Please let me know your choices in the comments at this link:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/beware-of-the-flowers-terf-island
Next up!
Chosen by: Patricia Baker-Cassidy
‘Woman Is The Nigger Of The World’ by John Lennon
#BeMorePorcupine
#JeSuisGraham
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#LGB✂️TQ
#KeepSpeaking
#LeaveKidsAlone
#JustSayMen
#NeverSurrender
#NeverForget
#TruthWillTriumph
#WeWillWin
Contribution made to Graham's crowdfund. This incident would be seen as satire if it hadn't really happened.
Nice work, Plods!
So now the boys in blue are told to ignore the burglaries, door-step theft, internet fraud, grooming gangs, modern slavery - but instead to crack on with arresting pesky Tweeters.
Will we wake to headlines about the Frock Boys being arrested for their "Kill A Terf" tweets, banners and speeches? Not holding my breath...