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In the Media

Articles That Mention the Free Speech Union

I don’t agree with her… but the law should protect cancel culture victims like Maureen

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AS THE head of the Free Speech Union (FSU), I’m often told by members of the woke Left that cancel culture isn’t real. According to them, it’s only a figment of the imagination of Right-wing culture warriors. People like me aren’t really concerned about free speech, they say. We’re just disappointed that male, pale and stale Conservatives aren’t on the telly as often as we used to be. Well, try telling all that to Maureen Martin.

Toby Young, The Mail+, 17th July 2022.

The Free Speech Union says expanding reach of hate crime law in Northern Ireland risks “empowering the easily offended and endangering the peace process”

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The Free Speech Union’s new report into the planned hate crime reforms warns: “Increasing the number of ‘stirring up’ offences, and criminalising expressions of ‘sectarian prejudice’, will harm public debate and risk inflaming existing political tensions in NI by creating a censorious atmosphere that empowers the easily offended and facilitates vexatious complaints. That, in turn, may endanger the peace process.”

Adam Kula, Belfast News Letter, 15th July 2022.

Free speech ‘stifled’ as universities cancel record number of speakers

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Toby Young, of the Free Speech Union, said: “This is a deeply worrying trend, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. In the past 12 months, the Free Speech Union has helped hundreds of students and academics who’ve got into trouble for pushing back against ideological orthodoxy on campus, whether it’s refusing to do unconscious bias training, criticising their university’s links with Stonewall, objecting to the decolonisation of the curriculum, or daring to point out that George Floyd had a criminal record.”

Louisa Clarence-Smith, The Telegraph, 14th July 2022.

Ex-Stonewall chief aims to rewrite Oxford University free speech rules

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Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, asked: “Why is an ex-chair of Stonewall who banned a Christian group from his college last summer at the behest of student activists convening a forum on free speech? That’s like asking Jack the Ripper to chair a forum on women’s safety. Oxford has a perfectly good free speech policy. The problem isn’t the lack of a decent free speech framework, but how to make sure people like David Isaac stick to it.”

Ewan Somerville and Hayley Dixon, The Telegraph, 9th July 2022.

No known links to slavery … but Cambridge college decolonises anyway

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Toby Young, the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said: “If Clare College genuinely cares about this issue, why doesn’t it campaign against modern forms of slavery, like the internment of over a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in labour camps by the Chinese authorities?” He said that the college should refuse to accept grants or donations from organisations linked to the Chinese government, adding: “Renaming part of its vast property empire is pointless virtue signalling. It costs them nothing and benefits no one.”

Louisa Clarence-Smith, The Telegraph, 28th June 2022.

TOBY YOUNG: How sad to see a former champion of British values succumb to anti-patriotic self-loathing

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Few will be surprised to learn that an organisation funded by the British taxpayer once issued a ‘non-discriminatory’ language guide that urged its staff not to refer to ‘Brits’, or use the phrase ‘the Queen’s English’. The reason the latter was ‘problematic’, we were told, was that ‘it implies that these varieties of English are more correct or of greater importance than others’.

Toby Young, Mail on Sunday, 25th June 2022.

Oxford college run by former Stonewall chairman apologises for axing Christian event

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Toby Young, Founder and Director of The Free Speech Union, commented: “The mistake Worcester College made was to immediately capitulate to the demands of an activist mob and ban a group from its premises without properly investigating the allegations against it. We see this kind of institutional cowardice again and again, particularly in the higher education sector, usually motivated by a desire for a quiet life. The way to force these institutions to take their responsibility to uphold free speech more seriously is to make it clear that organisations like ours will create an almighty fuss if they don’t.”

The Christian Institute, 25th June 2022.

“Woke” Open University anti-racist training course titled “Union Black” tells academics that “white superiority” is “embedded in the English language”

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Toby Young, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, told MailOnline: “The practice of publicly shaming your intellectual opponents and calling for them to lose their livelihoods is absolutely abhorrent and has no place in universities. Academics should be free to dissent from prevailing campus orthodoxies without fear of punishment. For Santander and the Open University to be promoting cancel culture is deeply irresponsible. Academics should be encouraged to tolerate people whose views they disagree with, not to demand their defenestration.”

Jack Wright, MailOnline, 16th June 2022.

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