Refrain from Speculating

The curious incident of the very serious incident

We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.

-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

A funny thing happened yesterday morning. Checking the Telegraph website, I noticed a curious headline: there was a ‘very serious incident’ afoot at De Montfort University, in Leicester. Wondering what this serious incident was, and immediately forming some suspicions, as one does in times like these, I clicked on the headline and was taken to a live news update feed. Here is what I learned:

What was rapidly becoming clear, as you can see, was that there had been an incident, presumably at 6pm on Tuesday, i.e., the previous day. And it had been serious. Very. There were no clear details or specifics about it whatsover. But, undoubtedly, it was a very serious incident.

I scrolled down:

Bus diversions. Road closures. But no details to confirm. What was now incontrovertible was that there really, truly was an incident happening. Or which was now over. Nobody was quite sure about that. But it was an incident which - have I mentioned this? - was very serious. I scrolled down a bit further:

The incident, I learned from this, had been witnessed by students and staff. And - in case there was any doubt about this - it was a serious incident. A very serious one. Serious enough to affect entrance to Leicester Royal Infirmary. All very serious and incident-ish, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

I continued my downward scrolling:

It was still a very serious incident, you understand. Indeed, I want to go out on a limb and stress to you, lest there be any confusion, and I mean literally any confusion whatsoever, that an incident had happened and that it was very serious. But it was now clear to me that, as apparently is sometimes the case with very serious incidents, by late morning the day after it had happened nobody had any idea yet what the incident had been.

Roads closed, buses diverted, restricted access to hospitals, all the result of an incident the nature of which was still a complete mystery.

I switched to the BBC. Surely our national broadcaster, which we all fund individually to the tune of £174.50 a year, would have more accurate information?

Aha! According to the BBC, a ‘person had been taken to hospital’ Now, that is a very serious incident. But what was that person taken to hospital for? Note the time provided. The incident had in fact happened at 5.03pm on Tuesday. It was now 11am on Wednesday. A person had been taken to hospital, which undoubtedly was very serious for them. But details had still yet to emerge, a mere 18 hours later. I scrolled down the BBC feed:

It certainly does sound scary. I mean, very serious incidents which result in a person being taken to hospital are pretty scary. It wouldn’t make me feel safe either. And whatever had happened, it was certainly sad to know about, regardless of the area one was from. And we can surely agree that, whatever had happened, it would have been good if every one of the unspecified number of people involved in the incident, about which we know nothing other than that it was very serious, had been OK.

I then scrolled up to the top of the BBC feed:

The local MP’s thoughts were with those affected by what had happened, but she did not know what that was. There were no details. And, more importantly, although the incident was serious, and though police cordons were in place, it was important not to speculate.

In Britain in 2026, you see, one must not speculate. One must refrain from speculating about very serious incidents that happen in the news. Very serious incidents happen from time to time, and you must not wonder what they are.

Later, I learned that an 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in police custody in Leicester, and that a man in his early 20s has died from stab wounds.

But we must refrain from speculating any further. Because in Britain in 2026, when a man stabs another man to death in the middle of a city centre in what would still have been daylight, one does not speculate about who they were, or why it happened, at all.