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In 2024, the Free Speech Union submitted freedom of information (FoI) requests to all 43 police forces in England and Wales to see if recording went down since a new code of practice of June 2023. The number has actually increased. This year the current government sneakily signalled its appreciation of NCHIs in response to a petition to abolish them.
Bruce Newsome, TCW, 12th August 2025.
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Lord Young of Acton, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said he hoped the panel would now reject the principle of a definition of Islamophobia entirely.
Oliver Wright, The Times, 15th August 2025.
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If you are unlucky enough to have your collar felt by the speech police, stop, think, get in touch with the Free Speech Union, and trust your peers. If there is hope, it lies in the jurors.
Tom Slater, Spiked, 15th August 2025.
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Condemning the crackdown, The Free Speech Union said: ‘Britain is in the grip of a surge in serious crime. In the year to March 2025, shoplifting rose 20 per cent, theft from the person climbed 15 per cent, and robberies topped 78,000.
Katherine Lawton, Daily Mail, 13th August 2025.
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The Free Speech Union is in Margate this morning (August 12) to announce legal action against Thanet council over its latest alcohol and antisocial behaviour Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) for Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Westgate.
The renewed PSPO was initially approved by Thanet council in July last year but rescinded just weeks later following a threat of costly legal action by the Free Speech Union, largely based around restrictions on the use of ‘foul’ language.
Kathy Bailes, Isle of Thanet News, 12th August 2025.
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Lord Toby Young, Free Speech Union boss, said: “I’m amazed that Merton Council has time for this nonsense. I can only assume fly-tipping and potholes aren’t a problem in Merton.”
Toby Codd, Express, 12th August 2025.
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Lord Young of Acton, the founder of the Free Speech Union, said Labour’s threat to fine social media firms should be seen in the light of US pressure. He said: “This feels performative to me. An attempt to reassure JD Vance that the British Government takes free speech seriously. In reality, the free speech duties under the Act are a joke and the chances of Ofcom fining a social media firm for failing to comply with them are vanishing to zero.”
Lord Young said that the legislation included powers to compel certain platforms not to remove content that was journalistic or of democratic importance.
Nick Gutteridge and James Titcomb, The Telegraph, 9th August 2025.
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I’m just back from Vancouver, where I was speaking at a fundraiser for the Free Speech Union of Canada. At the dinner afterwards I sat next to an Alberta separatist, a movement I was unaware of until now. Dating to the 19th century, it advocates for the secession of the province of Alberta and has been given a renewed impetus by the federal government’s hostility to fossil fuels under Justin Trudeau and now Mark Carney. Petroleum is Alberta’s biggest industry by far, and the revenue generated by energy exports means the province is a big contributor to Canada’s national budget, with its net contributions dwarfing those of other provinces. Shouldn’t Canada’s liberal prime ministers just say ‘thank you’ instead of wagging their fingers at Albertans for not doing more to save the planet?
Toby Young, The Spectator, 9th August 2025.
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The good news is that, with support from the Free Speech Union, Toshack is pursuing a claim through the Employment Tribunal. His solicitor, Margaret Gribbon, is also representing Sandie Peggie in her legal challenge against NHS Fife. Her involvement in both cases is a sign of just how serious the threat to free speech in Scotland has become – and how vital it is that these battles are fought and won.
Dr Frederick Attenborough, TCW, 8th August 2025.
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Lord Young of Acton, founder of the Free Speech Union, told the Daily Mail he was ‘shocked’ by the decision to sack Mr Pearson.
He accused the National Education Union of ‘siding with the bosses rather than the workers when it comes to breaches of workplace speech codes’.
Aidan Radnedge, Daily Mail, 7th August 2025.
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