When Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, musician and satirist Tom Lehrer famously quipped that political satire had become obsolete. Today, many people under 50 would be hard-pressed to say who Kissinger was – let alone why the award was controversial. So perhaps, given recent events, it’s time to update the epigram: satire became obsolete the day an Irish comedy writer was arrested by five armed police officers and questioned for hours over a few offhand remarks he made on X.

Personally, I never post anything on X. I don’t have the time or energy. And while I’m an implacable supporter of free speech, I also think it behoves us all to exercise discretion about what we say and write. Poking sticks into wasp nests will, inevitably, get you stung. Most of us learn from a young age that saying the first thing that comes to mind won’t endear us to everyone. Yet many seem not to have that filter on the internet. Much of what you see online is execrable – a constant stream of unfiltered digital babble. Do these people have no self-awareness?

Nevertheless, as idiotic, ill-considered and unimaginative as much of the online ‘debate’ is, very little of it warrants spending time in a cell. Unless, that is, you think being a moron should be criminalised. Despite recent hyperbolic headlines, we’re not actually living in a totalitarian state. Yet. If we were, we’d probably meet with an unfortunate ‘accident’, or at least disappear into the gulag, for daring to speak our........

© The Spectator