“Just how bad is the state of free speech in England?” an American podcaster asked me at the end of August. Not great, I said, but nothing like as cataclysmic as some U.S. commentators claim. I mean, we’re hardly North Korea.

I spoke too soon. Two days later, the Irish scriptwriter Graham Linehan was met at Heathrow Airport by five armed police, taken to a cell, and held for 19 hours. His offense? Three posts on X in which, in admittedly strong language, he told trans activists what he thought of them.