The Free Speech Union
Episodes
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...
The Woke Battle of the Sexes
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There was some good news coming out of Exeter University this week, where Ben (alongside Peter Bleksley) successfully debated for the motion, “This...
Forgetting Remembrance?
14 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This year’s Act of Remembrance was overshadowed by multiple protests taking place across London and the rest of the country. When a recent Ipsos pol...
The Voice Referendum
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Following a third week of pro-Palestinian protests in London and other UK cities (including sit-in protests across many major railway stations), the g...
The Battle of Ideas
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s episode was recorded in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Ideas festival, so Ben and Tom sat down in front of their microphones w...
The Westminster Declaration
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Saturday’s protests on the streets of London were yet another example of partial policing from the Metropolitan police, whose commissioner was calle...
What an Eventure!
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We are very fortunate this week to be joined by Dr Jan Macvarish, the FSU’s Education and Events Director. October is always jam-packed with events,...
Undue Diligence
10 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s episode was recorded just three days after the appalling terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas. It was only right to begin, therefore, wi...
Tiptoeing through the delicate broadcast ecology
03 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s almost exactly a year since PayPal cancelled the FSU’s account and so Tom & Ben kick off today with some thoughts around how much of an e...
Who Governs Britain?
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We begin today’s episode by pondering some interesting parallels between last week’s letter from Dame Caroline Dinenage requesting on-line platf...
Year Zero
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Frequent listeners to ‘That’s Debatable’ will remember our interview with Sibyl Ruth from the end of August (you can listen to that episode here...
Losing My Religion
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a couple of weeks now since the public berating of Róisín Murphy for expressing (in a private Facebook post) her concern with some of the mor...
Unsafe Spaces
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week we celebrate another significant victory for the FSU! Carl Borg-Neal, 57, was unfairly dismissed and subject to disability discrimination w...
Pax Britannica
30 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We kick off today’s episode exploring the free speech concerns raised in our latest briefing paper on Carbon Literacy Training (interestingly term...