The Free Speech Union

Jim Ratcliffe has CLEARED the path for others: Jacob Rees-Mogg

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg is a former cabinet minister and Conservative MP for North East Somerset, and now a GB News presenter. He says Jim Ratcliffe's com...

Karl Turner: Labour's Rebel Leader

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

FSU General Secretary Lord Young interviews Karl Turner MP, the leader of Labour's backbench rebellion against David Lammy's efforts to curtail the ri...

Jim Ratcliffe has CLEARED the path for others: Jacob Rees-Mogg

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg is a former cabinet minister and Conservative MP for North East Somerset, and now a GB News presenter. He says Jim Ratcliffe's com...

Jack Anderton: Debating society BANS Reform UK

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jack Anderton is a political campaigner and adviser for Reform UK. Bangor University Debating and Political Society refused his request to speak and d...

David Rose - Why Labour's 'Islamophobia' definiton is WAY worse than you thought...

27 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

David Rose is the Free Speech Union's Director of Research and Policy. His report on the Islamophobia working group has revealed that every single mem...

Toby Young: The unintended consequences for free speech if Peter Mandelson’s title is stripped

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Peter Mandelson scandal is unfolding, and the Labour government are drafting legislation to grant themselves the power to strip Lord Mandelson of ...

Why an ‘Islamophobia’ definition will censor the truth about grooming gangs — Charlie Peters

26 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Charlie Peters is GB News’ National Reporter and an investigative journalist. He has extensively covered the grooming gangs scandal in the face of a...

Vibe-shift: it’s the twilight years for politics as we knew it

20 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Jan Macvarish speaks to Brendan O’Neill about the regulation of Grok, how bad things were on Twitter before the Musk era and whether we c...

ARRESTED for talking about puberty blockers: Lois McLatchie Miller

13 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Lois McLatchie Miller is a free speech campaigner and a Christian writer and commentator. In 2025 she was arrested by fourteen police officers in Brus...

Why an ‘Islamophobia’ definition will censor the truth about grooming gangs — Charlie Peters

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

WRITE TO YOUR MP TO STOP THE ISLAMOPHOBIA DEFINITION: https://freespeechunion.org/oppose-an-official-definition-of-islamophobia/?v=c97b334ffd41   Co...

The most INVESTIGATED man in County Durham – Darren Grimes

16 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Darren Grimes is the Reform UK deputy leader of County Durham County Council.  Since Reform was elected to Durham County Council in May, there have b...

COMING BACK FROM CANCELLATION with Kate Clanchy

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2021, the award-winning author, teacher and poet Kate Clanchy suffered one of the most public and aggressive cancellations in the cultural world...

Disciplined for telling the truth at the BBC – Cath Leng

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cath Leng is a former BBC journalist who has spoken out amidst the BBC bias scandal. Disciplined for raising serious concerns about lack of impartiali...

"It was like a HORROR film!" Maxie Allen

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Watch Connie Shaw speak to Times Radio producer Maxie Allen who reveals the behind the scenes of his and his partner’s arrest for private WhatsApps....

Police Scotland DROP investigation into Susan Smith

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Susan Smith is one of the founders and directors of For Women Scotland, the grassroots women’s rights campaigners who took the Scottish government a...

Does Free Speech Have a Place at Work?

09 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s podcast guest is CEO, journalist and author Tanya de Grunwald. Tanya has been making waves in the world of HR with her This Isn’t Wor...

Julie Bindel: Non-Crime Hate Incident Investigations SCRAPPED

29 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Julie Bindel joins Connie Shaw to discuss the Metropolitan Police’s announcement that non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) will no longer be recorded fo...

Battle of Ideas Festival 2025: What is the Problem with Defining Islamophobia?

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s episode is a bit different — a live recording of an especially timely event hosted by the FSU as part of the Battle of Ideas Festival ...

Claire Fox: The Battle of Ideas and the Answer to the Free Speech Crisis

15 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

FREE SPEECH UNION MEMBERS GET 20% DISCOUNT ON BATTLE OF IDEAS TICKETS! Find them here: https://freespeechunion.org/event/battle-of-ideas-festival-202...

Standing up to Backdoor Blasphemy Law

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Jan Macvarish speaks to the FSU’s Director of Projects Stephen O’Grady about the continuing case of Hamit Coskun, the asylum-seeker fro...

Can universities ever recover from the free speech crisis?

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Connie Shaw   18:54 (11 minutes ago)       to me               In this week’s That’s Deb...

Transatlantic Free Speech Hypocrisy?

23 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Connie and Jan discuss the extraordinary level of interest in the case of Deborah Anderson, the Free Speech Union member and American cit...

Can Free Speech Unite the Kingdom?

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week on That’s Debatable… Charlie Kirk, a bastion for free speech and open debate, was tragically assassinated last week. Everyone at The FSU...

Down With This Sort of Thing!

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jan Macvarish is joined by Vinay Kapoor who runs the Free Speech Union’s funding stream for students and young people, the Ian Mactaggart Programme...

What REALLY happens at the Free Speech Union…

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Celeste, an FSU Case Officer, and External Affairs Officer Connie discuss what goes on behind the scenes at the FSU, what case officers do when they r...

Lucy Connolly RELEASED: Toby Young answers common questions

28 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lucy Connolly, the child minder who was jailed for 31 months for a single tweet, has been released from prison. The Free Speech Union funded her appea...

Pensioner ARRESTED for criticising former employer

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week on That’s Debatable… The Free Speech Union had a trip to Margate beach to protest Thanet District Council’s new Public Spaces Protecti...

Swearing and satire have been BANNED

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week Connie and Jan discuss the Public Spaces Protection Order that has been passed by Thanet District Council (TDC). In the summer of 2024, the ...

Free speech for all or just for ‘gammon’?

22 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Connie and Jan discuss a new report released by the Government’s Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE). The CCE Freedom of Expressi...

Defining Islamophobia

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a special episode of That's Debatable, FSU founder and General Secretary Lord Young talks to Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Tell MAMA and Faith Matte...

Rap, Research, Banter and Bans

08 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Connie and Jan begin by discussing the furore arising from last week’s Glastonbury Festival, when rap duo Bob Vylan led a crowd of thousands in chan...

Rainbow Refuseniks and other Religious Heretics

01 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

That’s Debatable! is the weekly podcast of the Free Speech Union. Hosts Lynsey Metcalfe and Jan MacVarish – both staffers at the FSU – talk abou...

Do we need an 'Islamophobia' definition?

24 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

That’s Debatable!’ is the weekly podcast of the Free Speech Union. Hosts Connie Shaw and Jan MacVarish – both staffers at the FSU – talk about...

In Defence of Banter and Books

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Connie’s Campus Strife

10 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Classroom Battles

03 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Police Our Streets Not Our Tweets

20 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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-m...

Licence to Offend

13 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 pos...

Journalism in the Dock

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

According to College of Policing guidance, Non-Crime Hate Incidents (NCHIs) help forces build an intelligence picture of community tensions and unders...

FSU Case Data Highlights

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 wa...

Pray for Shackleton!

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 £...

Rick Prior & The Police Federation of England and Wales

25 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With the FSU’s support, the Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation – Rick Prior – is suing his own union after he was ‘cancelled’ fo...

On Being Problematic

18 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a major win for workplace free speech, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have abandoned plans t...

Go Broke, Go Woke

11 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

JD Vance's Valentine Speech

25 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a remarkably frank speech at the Munich Security Conference, US Vice President JD Vance warned that the greatest threat to Western democracies is n...

17 Minutes of Courtroom Sanity

11 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With the help of the FSU, a former Royal Marine who served in Iraq has been cleared of publishing threatening material with intent to stir up racial h...

EDI Dominoes Start to Fall

04 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We briefly discuss last Saturday’s Manchester event on free expression in football, before moving on to a recent victory for workplace free speech t...

Discussion with Martin Speake

28 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We were delighted to welcome the distinguished composer, musician and educator Martin Speake onto‘That's Debatable!’ this week. Back in February...

Partial Win for Academic Freedom

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bridget Phillipson has updated the House of Commons on the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act (HEFSA), which secured cross-party support in the ...

Mea Maxima Culpa

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On Tuesday 7th January, Jan joined many others in Trafalgar Square to stand in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo and honour the victims from ten years ag...

Can Free Speech Survive Keir Starmer?

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Happy New Year to all our listeners and viewers! We were immensely proud to see both Toby Young and our Chair, Professor Nigel Biggar, in the New Year...

All to Play For

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The former Conservative and UKIP MP, Douglas Carswell, writes in The Telegraph this week, “England is no longer a free society. The old country is d...

Long Live the Refuseniks!

10 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We start with some good news. As reported in The Telegraph, Cambridge Constabulary have announced that they will be taking no further action against t...

Unpopular Opinions - Academic Freedom in New Zealand

03 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We were delighted to welcome Dr James Kierstead onto ‘That's Debatable!’ to discuss his latest report, “Unpopular Opinions: Academic Freedom in...

Censor Like It's 1979

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jan was fortunate enough to join ‘Academics for Academic Freedom’ (AFAF) at their annual conference on Saturday 23rd November and we begin by disc...

Watch It!

19 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Allison Pearson’s visit from Essex Police on Remembrance Sunday has reignited the debate around the state of free expression in the UK. While some c...

Two Cheers for Trump on Free Speech

12 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to American politics, it’s probably fair to describe the events of the last seven days as ‘historic’. We begin, therefore, by aski...

Political Football

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A striking chart that we’ve included in November’s newsletter shows how the FSU has surged from just under 14,000 members at the beginning of July...

L(loyd)G(eorge)BTQ+

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Battle of Ideas 2024 delivered yet another weekend of thought-provoking talks, panel discussions and debate. It was especially heartening to witne...

The Knight's Tale

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been 100 days since Sir Keir Starmer formed his new government and it’s fair to say that they have not been great for freedom in the UK. From...

Discussion with Bernie Spofforth

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We are delighted to welcome Bernadette (‘Bernie’) Spofforth onto ‘That’s Debatable!’ this week. The FSU offered to defend Bernie after she ...

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

17 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A report published this week by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services confirms that police actions such as ‘taking the knee’ o...

Man's Best Friend Cancelled!

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A graph of FSU membership growth up to the end of August was shared on our social media channels this week and it is impossible to miss the moment at ...

The Return of the Non-Crime Hate Incident

03 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The government has this week continued its extrajudicial onslaught on civil liberties. As reported in The Telegraph, the Home Secretary is now “com...

Online Anonymity

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Given the ongoing civil unrest across the UK, we are worried that the new government is about to clamp down harder and faster on our free expression t...

We Fight On!

30 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, the new Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson issued a written statement to the House of Commons saying she intended to ‘pause’ the Fr...

The EDI Hydra

23 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After a week that included the attempted assassination of former President Trump and the breaking news that President Biden will no longer be standing...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On Tuesday 9 July, the Free Speech Union was honoured to bring together an expert panel that included whistleblowers Sue Evans and Dr David Bell from ...

There May Be Trouble Ahead

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While the FSU persists in its mission to remain politically non-partisan, we are worried that the new government could bring in laws that criminalise ...

Young Hope

02 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In January 2024, Amelia Sparrow (not her real name) was dismissed by a Liberal Democrat MP after only three full days in her role of Parliamentary Res...

Party Games

25 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The FSU has reviewed each of the main party manifestos (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Reform) for what they have to say about the five freed...

What Have The Ancient Greeks Ever Done For Us?

18 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Free Speech Fates have woven a Greek thread through today’s episode, starting with the Olympic Games. A 33-page ‘Portrayal Guidelines’ docum...

Struggle Session

11 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As reported in the Mail, Durham university last week postponed a debate on whether “Palestinian Leadership is the Biggest Barrier to Peace”. Accor...

The Great Youth Experiment

04 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Free Speech Union has responded to the Office for Students’ (OfS) consultation on its proposed new guidance for English universities on how best...

Global Censorship

28 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The first quarter of 2024 was the FSU’s busiest yet for free speech case work and we begin by reflecting on what insight this gives us into the stat...

Not Angles, but Angels

21 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ben spoke at the launch of SEEN (Sex Equality and Equity Network) in Parliament last week and made the point that the FSU has handled over 700 cases r...

The Matrix

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today we take a slightly different tack and explore the 1999 film ‘The Matrix’, which imparts a deep well-spring of metaphors for describing cance...

Powwows and Pepperoni

07 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

FSU General Secretary, Toby Young, was nearly abducted last week by the infamous Hate Monster during a visit to Scotland. Video footage shows Toby fin...

Cultural Tribalism

30 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We whizz through a couple of this week’s free speech headlines today before providing listeners with an update on Linzi Smith’s case against Newca...

Speech Precrime

23 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Toby Young has written a sobering piece in this week’s Spectator, surveying speech-restricting laws in the works across the world, from Poland to Ca...

Re-education, Re-education, Re-education

16 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One of our recurring bugbears is the imperious messaging that has seeped into all corners of British society, lecturing us on what to think and say as...

The EDI Tax

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act comes to the end of its first week, the number of ‘hate crimes’ reported to Police Scotland has ti...

Scotland's Moment of Truth

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

By the time this episode of ‘That’s Debatable!’ is released, the not-so-new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act will have come into force...

Around the Woke in Fifty Minutes

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We’re in Jules Verne’s hands today as we travel around the woke world, from East Sussex in England to Scotland, the USA, the EU, China and beyond....

Zero Tolerance

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's the first birthday of ‘That’s Debatable!’. We hope listeners will indulge us as we take a moment at the beginning of today's episode to loo...

J.S. Mill the Obscure

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As reported in the Telegraph and in detail on our website, University College London (UCL) has now launched an investigation into its decision to ban...

Banning Islamophobia: Blasphemy Law by the Backdoor

05 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The FSU has published an essay by Tim Dieppe (Head of Public Policy at Christian Concern) with a Foreword by Professor Richard Dawkins. Tim argues tha...

A Dark Day for Democracy

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Many listeners will already be familiar with the name of Freddie Attenborough, the FSU’s Communications Officer, who joins us for today’s episode....

Reignite the Free Speech Spark

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Since its establishment in March 2023, the Ian Mactaggart Programme has provided generous financial support to a range of free speech initiatives amon...

Standing with Salman

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There is a lot going on behind the scenes at the Royal Society of Literature (RSL), as reported this week in The Times and written up in detail on the...

The Stadium Stasi

06 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our first story, which was reported in The Telegraph over the weekend, has hit a nerve with the nation. Millions have now watched the short video put...

The Past is a Free Country

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

‘Britain isn’t a free country’. That’s the title of a recent Spectator article by Ed West and we fear he could be onto something. At the very ...

In Conversation with Bryn Harris, FSU Chief Legal Counsel

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We welcome Bryn Harris, the FSU’s chief legal counsel, to‘That's Debatable!’ this week. He discusses his own personal journey to the FSU togethe...

Compelled Thought

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Using freedom of information requests, the Free Speech Union has been investigating the transgender policies of various public sector bodies, but the ...

Carl Borg-Neal: Huge Win for Free Speech

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a very exciting start to 2024 at the Free Speech Union where we have been celebrating one of our biggest ever wins, the case of FSU membe...

A New Hope

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Happy New Year to all our listeners! We begin with some good news from the Spectator. An article penned by Fraser Nelson, the magazine’s editor, re...

Free Speech with Teeth

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For our final episode of 2023 we zoom in on the higher education sector, where the Office for Students has just published proposals on its complaints ...

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the world of free speech, it often feels like we take two half-steps forward followed by a troubling leap backwards, and today’s line-up fits tha...

Never Enough Books

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Now that the doors on our Advent calendars are being opened with alarming rapidity, we take the opportunity to discuss two seasonally related topics: ...

Against Antisemitism

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There is little doubt that last week’s FSU panel debate on ‘free speech and the right to protest in the current moment’ was an essential convers...