A man in the United Kingdom has been sentenced to more than two years in jail for an “active role” in a riot in the town of Hanley.

Questions of two-tier policing surround the case, with 32-year-old father Nathan Poole being accused not of physical actions, but for offensive remarks such as “Who the f*** is Allah?” and “You are all f****** nonces” in addition to arguing with police, local media reported.

Leilani Dowding, a social commentator who lives near where the incident occurred, joined Tuesday's edition of The Ezra Levant Show to discuss this shameful jailing.

“We've seen [Prime Minister] Keir Starmer tell President Trump that there's still free speech in Britain, and you can see there's not,” Leilani told Ezra. Though the man's comments were rude, “free speech is free speech,” she added.

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Despite pleading guilty, perhaps due to bad legal advice or facing steeper threats from prosectors, the 30-month sentence doled out to Poole was “crazy,” Leilani said — especially given Poole's lack of violent behaviour.

In contrast, Leilani compared the case to BBC newscaster Huw Edwards, who pleaded guilty to having child abuse images on his phone. “He walked away free, with a suspended sentence, didn't spend a single day in jail, and that was a judge's decision,” she said.

Given Edwards' plea deal was not unique in heinous cases, Leilani felt a judge should have been more lenient towards Poole's offensive, but non-violent behaviour.

Thirty months is “an insane amount of time for just being stupid in the moment and saying silly words.”