That’s Debatable!

Connie’s Campus Strife

That’s Debatable!’ is the weekly podcast of the Free Speech Union. Hosts Tom Harris and Jan MacVarish – both staffers at the FSU – talk about the free speech controversies that have erupted in the past week. Please like, subscribe and share.
With Tom still abroad, Jan is joined by recent UK graduate Connie Shaw who has firsthand experience of campus culture and cancellation. Connie describes her time at university and how she came to need the services of the Free Speech Union. She and Jan go on to discuss some of the trends that have shaped Gen Z, such as growing up in lockdown, the high emotionalism of contemporary social justice movements, intergenerational conflicts and the deadening attachment to a moralised left/right framework within academia.
Jan refers to a video of a recent debate at Cambridge University where free speech was discussed with speakers including Lionel Shriver, Professor Kehinde Andrews and historian Fara Dabhoiwala. You can watch it here.
Edited by Jason Clift

Classroom Battles

That’s Debatable!’ is the weekly podcast of the Free Speech Union. Hosts Tom Harris and Jan MacVarish – both staffers at the FSU – talk about the free speech controversies that have erupted in the past week. Please like, subscribe and share.
This week, the Free Speech Union’s Education and Events Director Jan Macvarish takes the steering wheel as Tom Harris is away. She is joined by the Free Speech Union’s Case Management Officer Lynsey Metcalfe to discuss some research Lynsey is conducting into the free speech issues that arise in schools. It will be published in the coming months on the FSU website.
Lynsey and Jan also refer to last week’s book launch for Andrew Doyle’s The End of Woke, the video of which has already been watched thousands of times and can be viewed here.
A video from the FSU/Women’s Rights Network event held last weekend in Manchester with Akua Reindorf KC that is also mentioned will be posted on our You Tube channel by the end of the week.
That's Debatable!’ is edited by Jason Clift.

Police Our Streets Not Our Tweets

With the FSU’s backing, Lucy Connolly, jailed for a tweet about migrants that she posted following the Southport murders, has been fighting her 31-month sentence in the Court of Appeal. Although a verdict was expected on Thursday when the hearing concluded, the Court will now be providing a written judgement, somewhat vaguely scheduled for “as soon as possible”. Allison Pearson has written a powerful piece about the ongoing saga in the Telegraph. A member of the FSU’s legal advisory council, Andrew Tettenborn, has written in Spiked about the European Commission’s threat to bring legal proceedings against Ireland for allegedly failing to comply with a 2008 framework decision that seeks to criminalise Holocaust denial or trivialisation of the Holocaust or other crimes against humanity. As Andrew points out, Ireland has had hate speech laws of its own since 1989 and even imposed a law last year that increases the length of prison sentences for certain crimes that are proved to be motivated by hate. We end today’s episode with a discussion around Helen Joyce’s recent appearance on BBC Woman’s Hour.
‘That's Debatable!’  is edited by Jason Clift.

Licence to Offend

Julian Foulkes, a retired Special Constable, was arrested and held in a cell for eight hours over a tweet warning about the threat to British Jews posed by the pro-Palestinian marches. In October of 2023, he responded to another tweet criticising Suella Braverman for describing the pro-Palestinian protests that were sweeping the country in the aftermath of the massacre in Southern Israel as ‘hate marches’. As reported in the Telegraph, the day after someone complained about Julian’s tweet, six police officers turned up at his home, ransacked the premises, arrested him, detained him for eight hours and gave him a caution. Julian retained the services of a solicitor and, with his help, got Kent Police to admit they’d made a mistake and delete the caution from his record. Julian, who has now joined the Free Speech Union, is now going to sue the force for wrongful arrest, as well as unlawful interference in his right to liberty. You can contribute to Julian’s crowdfunder here. We move on to discuss two ways in which the FSU has stepped in to help with free expression events: the Lewes Speakers Festival on Friday 9th May and the re-platforming of the ‘Licence to Offend’ cartoon exhibition. There is good news to report in the world of football where Cerys Vaughan has spoken out about her Kafkaesque trial after asking a transgender opponent: “Are you a man?”. Following a three-month battle, an appeal board of the FA quashed the ruling against her in a damning – and alarming – judgment on the original proceedings. As reported in the Telegraph, the written reasons state: she had not received a fair hearing during a three-hour video call that left her in tears; proper consideration had not been given to her age or the evidence against her; and she was wrongly found guilty “by own admission” when she had denied the charges. We end with an update on our event with Andrew Doyle on the 29th May, which is now both in-person and online.
‘That's Debatable!’  is edited by Jason Clift.

Journalism in the Dock

According to College of Policing guidance, Non-Crime Hate Incidents (NCHIs) help forces build an intelligence picture of community tensions and understand where they need to allocate resources for prevention. Indeed, during a House of Lords debate in November 2024, Lord Hanson, the Home Office minister, told peers: “It is vital that the police monitor non-crime hate incidents when proportionate and necessary to do so to help prevent serious crimes”. However, the Telegraph reports that freedom of information requests submitted to police by Harry Miller, the founder of Fair Cop, revealed that many of the biggest forces, including the Met, Greater Manchester and West Midlands do not actually analyse the NCHI data they collect. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are tabling an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to abolish non-crime hate incidents. FSU members can use our Campaigns tool to write to their MPs to urge them to vote for this amendment. In our next item, we discuss the barring of Renaud Camus, a French philosopher, from entering the UK due to his controversial views on immigration. Lord Young is quoted in the Telegraph, “We’ve reached out to him to see if he’d like any help in appealing this decision, and he said yes. So I anticipate that we are going to be getting an immigration lawyer on the case”. He adds, “I don’t think that the common good is endangered by inviting people to set out their contentious views in the public square, particularly not someone as distinguished as Mr Camus”. We end with a brief discussion on a new FSU briefing paper written by Trevor Kavanagh and entitled, “Journalism in the Dock, Sir Keir Starmer’s Baseless Prosecution of Tabloid Journalists as Director of Public Prosecutions”. The video of Monday’s FSU event, “Lifeblood of Democracy”, where we discussed the issues raised within the paper and Operation Elveden, will soon be available on our website.
‘That's Debatable!’  is edited by Jason Clift.

FSU Case Data Highlights

We have just completed our quarterly analysis of FSU casework and dive into the results of that during today’s episode. The first quarter of 2025 was our busiest ever with 411 new incidents received in the FSU inbox. This growth in caseload is directly related to the continuing increase in FSU active membership, which is now running at over 4,000 new members per quarter. ‘State Intervention’, which ranges from police contact and Non-Crime Hate Incidents through to arrest and prosecution, is a growing proportion of our work, representing 23% of new cases for the year to date, up from just 10% as recently as 2023. The good news is that, for cases that we see through from beginning to end, our member achieves a favourable outcome 80% of the time. We end the episode with a discussion on our third Belfast speakeasy that was held on Friday 11th April – the video should be up later in the week. We wish all our listeners and viewers a very Happy Easter!
‘That's Debatable!’  is edited by Jason Clift.

Pray for Shackleton!

Both The Times and Sky News have reported on a landmark ruling from the Office for Students (OfS), which has fined the University of Sussex a record £585,000 for “serious and significant” free speech failings in the case of Professor Kathleen Stock, accused of ‘transphobia’ for her gender-critical views. Professor Stock was forced out of the university in 2021 after a three-year campaign of bullying and character assassination. The OfS’s report denounces Sussex’s “trans and non-binary equality” statement for undermining academic freedom and creating a “chilling effect”. The report goes on: “An example of this effect in practice is the experience of Professor Stock. There were some views she did not feel able to express, and therefore teach, despite those views being lawful. Other staff and students may have felt similarly unable to express these, or other, lawful views.” Sussex’s Vice-Chancellor Sasha Roseneil reacted furiously, accusing the OfS of “free speech absolutism”. In our next item, reported in The Telegraph, we discuss an inclusivity guide issued to employees of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) says that the “myth of meritocracy” asserts “race does not play a role in life successes” – and that the “belief that performance alone will be enough to earn recognition [and] promotion” can be a “microaggression”. In fact, even just saying “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” can count as “racial harassment”. We end with the news that Rangers FC is threatening lifetime bans after a group of fans displayed a banner reading “KEEP WOKE FOREIGN IDEOLOGIES OUT DEFEND EUROPE” during a recent Europa League tie at Ibrox. UEFA swiftly fined Rangers £25,000, describing the banner as “racist and/or discriminatory”. The story is discussed in Spiked by our digital communications director, Freddie Attenborough. If you’re a Rangers fan under investigation – or know someone who is – contact the FSU at help@freespeechunion.org. We end the episode with a round-up of forthcoming FSU events.
‘That's Debatable!’  is edited by Jason Clift.

Rick Prior & The Police Federation of England and Wales

With the FSU’s support, the Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation – Rick Prior – is suing his own union after he was ‘cancelled’ for suggesting frontline officers are increasingly nervous about challenging people from ethnic minorities whom they suspect of breaking the law, given the spate of internal investigations into officers accused of being ‘racist’. Following an interview on GB News in October 2024 which led to his suspension, Mr Prior was also locked out of his emails and IT system and told he wasn’t allowed to speak to the press or comment on social media. As reported in The Telegraph and with the backing of the FSU, Mr Prior is taking legal action against the Police Federation of England & Wales and you can support Rick here. In other news, on Monday 17th March, the Online Safety Act’s latest phase of duties came into force. They require social media platforms – on pain of massive fines – to identify and remove illegal content. Sites must complete risk assessments detailing how they deal with illegal material and implement safety measures to deal with the risk. The Telegraph reports that dozens of small internet forums have already blocked British users or shut down as new online safety laws come into effect, with one comparing the new regime to a British version of China’s “great firewall”. Interestingly, the importance of internet forums and online anonymity was raised at our ‘From Faith to Faithless’ event last week. When labouring under the pervasive influence of a ‘high control’ religion, anonymous online communication becomes an essential ingredient for those taking their first tentative steps back to the wider world.  
‘That's Debatable!’  is edited by Jason Clift.

On Being Problematic

In a major win for workplace free speech, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have abandoned plans to impose new diversity and inclusion rules on financial firms after strong pushback, including from the FSU. Had the proposals gone ahead, they would have placed sweeping new obligations on a significant portion of the UK’s financial sector. In January 2024, we responded to two parallel consultations (here and here), warning that the proposals would create a climate where employees felt unable to challenge radical progressive orthodoxies on a cluster of issues without fear of professional consequences. Our response to the FCA consultation was submitted via its online portal, but you can read our letter to the PRA here. We move on to discuss the case of Ben Woods, a member of the Free Speech Union (FSU), who has worked at Waitrose’s Henley branch in Oxfordshire for 25 years, having joined the supermarket as a teenager. However, after accusing its long-serving employee of misconduct over a dossier of more than 30 social media posts, the company has now swiftly suspended him. The case was reported in both The Telegraph and The Mail and you can support Ben’s s fundraiser page here. Thames Valley Police have admitted acting unlawfully in arresting an adult-education teacher at a local proclamation of the accession of King Charles in September 2022. Symon Hill, 47, was going home from church in Oxford on the Sunday morning three days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II when he found his way blocked by the ceremony. Following the public declaration of Charles as king, he called out from the back of the crowd: “Who elected him?” He then pursued legal action for wrongful arrest and has finally won his case, together with £2,500 in compensation. Now a trainee Baptist minister, Mr Hill (somewhat understatedly) said that he’d been “surprised” by the entire affair and by the two-and-a-half years it had taken the police to admit their mistake. We end the episode with a discussion on a report in The Telegraph that Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order last Friday gutting the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) – Voice of America’s parent agency – and several other government departments.
 ‘That's Debatable!’  is edited by Jason Clift.

Go Broke, Go Woke

A man arrested for burning a copy of the Koran in Bradford will not face charges, following intervention by the Free Speech Union. The man arrived in Britain as an asylum-seeker and, ironically, he was fleeing religious persecution in a Muslim majority country. After he uploaded a video of himself burning a Koran in a symbolic stand for freedom of speech and against Islamic extremism, West Yorkshire Police reacted swiftly – not to protect his right to protest, but to arrest him on suspicion of committing a criminal offence. The FSU intervened immediately, instructing a solicitor and covering our member’s legal fees. After several months, the police have now told him they’ll be taking no further action. Freddie Attenborough, our Digital Communications Director, has written about the case at length for The Conservative Woman. We are encouraging our supporters to write to their MP to encourage them to support an amendment tabled by The Opposition to scrap Clause 18 of the Employment Rights Bill. Clause 18 is a dangerous escalation in speech policing, disguised as a way to ‘protect’ vulnerable workers. It will force British businesses to monitor customer conversations or risk being sued for ‘third-party harassment’. Next, two recent stories from Cardiff University could serve as a parable for all that’s going wrong in British higher education. Either that, or a “Go Broke, Go Woke” parody. In story one, the university has announced plans to cut 400 academic jobs. In story two, there’s now a mandatory EDI module for all first-year Cardiff students. In other words, at the same time as the university is trying to get rid of academics who could teach students to think critically about received wisdoms, it’s somehow found the money to help EDI zealots impose them as dogma. The module provides a comprehensive guide to EDI-speak. Out, for example, go such “microaggressions” as complimenting somebody on their English. Also out are any idioms with an offensive ‘origin story’. We end the episode with a round-up of forthcoming FSU events.
‘That's Debatable!’  is edited by Jason Clift.