Beware turning Russell Brand’s story into a conspiracy theory in its own right

Whatever your views on the Russell Brand scandal – and there are four serious allegations of rape, assault and “emotional abuse” against him, the decision by YouTube to suspend the comedian and actor’s ability to earn money from a platform where he has 6.5 million subscribers is just appalling. Chilling, actually. As is the behaviour of the BBC, which says it has removed some content featuring their former favourite bad boy from iPlayer, “having assessed that it now falls below public expectatio