All to Play For

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 descending into authoritarianism.” We begin by pondering whether this is true. As Jan points out, the very fact there is a fight on for free expression is a positive and we should eschew a paralysing fatalism. We move on to discuss The Spectator being reprimanded by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) for a piece by Gareth Roberts last May in which he wrote that Nicola Sturgeon “was interviewed by writer Juno Dawson, a man who claims to be a woman, and so the conversation naturally turned to gender”. Michael Gove, the new editor of The Spectator, has written powerfully in protest at IPSO’s ruling in this week’s edition of the magazine. Some important good news is that Bromley Council has adopted free speech protections for councillors in its constitution. The Council’s Code of Conduct now states: “The right to free speech under the law is the basis of democracy and will be upheld at all times and there is no right to be offended by any lawful speech”. The FSU has been working for months with Bromley councillor Simon Fawthrop to draft these protections. There is further good news reported in The Times that the Chairman of the College of Policing, Lord Herbert of South Downs, has demanded a complete rethink on non-crime hate incidents (NCHI). As he says in the article, “We want to apply a commonsense approach, where the police officer would receive a complaint and they would be able to say, ‘We’re sorry, we can understand you find that offensive but it’s not a matter for us’”. We couldn’t agree more! Finally, we report back on this week’s annual online review which saw Ayaan Hirsi Ali declared our ‘free speech hero’ for 2024 and Sir Keir Starmer our ‘free speech zero’. We wish all our listeners and viewers a very Happy Christmas and a 2025 full of free expression. ‘That's Debatable!’  is edited by Jason Clift.