SNAP POLL: Has Britain become a police state as journalist Allison Pearson investigated over alleged hate crime?

A senior journalist has been the subject of a police investigation for a Tweet she posted over a year ago which allegedly has stirred up hatred.

Allison Pearson, 64, a regular contributor to the Telegraph, said police officers visited her home on Remembrance Sunday to tell her she was under investigation.

Pearson said: “I was accused of a non-crime hate incident. It was to do with something I had posted on X a year ago. A YEAR ago? Yes. Stirring up racial hatred apparently.”

Officers weren’t allowed to disclose what the post was about, though Pearson was posting about the October 7 attacks at the time.

When she asked who accused her of such behaviour, the officer corrected her: “It’s not the accuser, they’re called the victim.”

She branded the situation as “Kafkaesque”, and said it appeared that the two officers themselves were confused.

“I was definitely shocked. Astonished. That too. Upset. How could I not be?,” she said.

“It’s never nice having the police at the door if you’re a law-abiding person, because police at the door can mean only one of two things: tragedy or trouble. But to have them here on the saddest, most solemn date in the calendar with this kind of malevolent nonsense. It was surreal.”

A police spokesman said: “We’re investigating a report passed to us by another force. The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed. An investigation is now being carried out under section 17 of the Public Order Act.

“As part of that investigation, officers attended an address on Sunday November 10 to invite a woman to attend a voluntary interview on the matter.”