"SO NOW WE KNOW... FOR THE LABOUR PARTY, FREE SPEECH IS ONLY EVER HATE SPEECH."

FSU Director Ben Jones joined Talk TV’s Alex Phillips to discuss news that the Labour Government has been accused by more than 500 academics of giving in to cancel culture after suspending a new law to uphold free speech in universities. Last month, the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson torpedoed the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, a carefully crafted piece of legislation designed to address the free speech crisis in English universities. As Ben points out, we caught a glimpse of Labour’s contempt for freedom of speech and academic freedom recently, when an anonymous “government source” described this vital piece of legislation to The Times as “the Tories’ hate speech charter”. Leaving aside the question of whether the government of the day should be indulging in rhetoric that would strike most sixth-form politicians as puerile, the claim is wholly false, since the Act received cross-party support during the last Parliament, with its most important clauses due to be commenced on 1st August. However, because Rishi Sunak called an election before the Act had been fully implemented, the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson seized her chance to quash it. At the FSU, we intend to fight this wanton act of vandalism with everything we’ve got. If the decision is allowed to stand, it will become virtually impossible for students and academics to challenge radical progressive ideology on campus. That’s why, earlier this month, we sent a pre-action protocol letter to the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, threatening a judicial review if she doesn’t reverse her decision to smother the Act. In our letter, we set out why we think Ms Phillipson’s decision not to commence the Act was ultra vires. You can read our letter here. https://freespeechunion.org/pre-actio... Bridget Phillipson is now subject to a “duty of candour”, which requires that she disclose any documents showing the basis for her decision to torpedo the Act. Judicial review proceedings are notoriously expensive, all the more so when taking on the might of central government with its army of lawyers. If you can, please donate to our legal crowdfunder and help most some of the costs of our impending legal battle by clicking here. https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/hel... You can also write to your MP, urging them to ask the Education Secretary to think again, here. https://freespeechunion.org/higher-ed...