“DEI was supposed to help people like me. It didn’t,” writes Raquel Rosario Sánchez for Quillette. She continues: In February, the Calgary-based Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy published a study on the effectiveness of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), authored by David Millard Haskell, a professor of sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario. Haskell reviewed decades of research into the topic, including seven studies published in well-known journals, and meta-analyses covering hundreds of others. His conclusion is that DEI training is generally both divisive and counte ..read more

Public art should be “decolonised” or risk being removed, according to Welsh Government guidance. As reported by the Telegraph, the devolved Labour administration has finalised official guidelines which instructs public bodies, including Wales’s National Museum in Cardiff, on how to ensure statues, plaques and paintings project the “right historic narrative”. The report continues: Guidance states that art in public spaces must be “decolonised” and should “celebrate the achievements of our diverse society”. The term “decolonisation” refers to a process of ensuring history and other disciplines ..read more

A university’s attempts to regulate staff and students’ use of social media may put it on a collision course with the English sector regulator’s new free speech rules, it has been warned. As reported by the THE, the University of Leeds has introduced a social media policy that instructs those connected to the institution not to “post or share content (including photos, images, videos or soundtracks) which is unlawful, abusive, insulting, threatening, or which may reasonably be considered likely to cause serious distress or cause another person to fear for their safety, or which defames or unfa ..read more

Ireland’s new Taoiseach Simon Harris has reiterated his commitment to passing an amended version of Ireland’s authoritarian new hate speech bill before the next general election, despite numerous Teachta Dálas calling for it to be summarily scrapped in the wake of Scotland’s disastrous experiment with similar legislation (breakingnews.ie, The European Conservative). Under the country’s new Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill, which is currently before the upper house of the Oireachtas, it will become a crime punishable by up to five years in jail to say a ..read more

The FSU of Australia’s co-founder, Reuben Kirkham, has written a guest blog piece for us, on the organisation’s overflowing in-tray. As well as their usual case work and members’ events, in the last month they’ve launched two legal challenges as well as having run an ‘uncancelled’ tour for Graham Linehan. Reuben continues: We have had a lot of recent battles and activity in the Free Speech Union of Australia. As well as our usual case work and members’ events, in the last month we have launched two legal challenges as well as having run an ‘uncancelled’’ tour for Graham Linehan. The Billboard ..read more

An FSU member explains how the organisation helped them after they were fired for expressing gender-critical concerns in the workplace. A chance encounter with a stranger led to one of the best decisions of my life: joining the Free Speech Union (FSU). This person had experienced some difficulty in their professional life and been enormously supported by the FSU; their simple imperative to me – “Join The Free Speech Union” – was something I acted on that same day. I don’t know where I would be had I not taken that advice. As someone who could be broadly defined as gender critical, I was concer ..read more

News of the Cass Review’s damning indictment of NHS England’s treatment of children with gender issues has finally reached Scotland. On Thursday, the Sandyford clinic – aka the Tartan Tavistock – announced that it has paused all prescribing of puberty blockers to vulnerable children. Yet it’s not just clinicians who have told children they were ‘born in the wrong body’, and that harmful medical intervention will be necessary for the rest of their lives to make them right, says the writer, author (and member of the FSU’s Writers’ Advisory Council) Gillian Philip for Spiked. She continues: One ..read more

According to official Police Scotland figures, a total of 9,374 hate crimes have been reported since the country’s draconian new Hate Crime law was activated on 1st April, with only 0.6 per cent deemed legitimate. The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act broadens the offence of ‘stirring up racial hatred’, extending it to the protected characteristics of disability, religion, sexual orientation, age, transgender identity and ‘variations in sex characteristics’. The Bill won the backing of a majority of MSPs in March 2021, despite concerns that the entire section on stirri ..read more

A high court judge has thrown out an attempt by the government’s most senior law officer to prosecute a woman for holding a placard on jury rights outside a climate trial. (Guardian, Law Society Gazette, Reuters). Handing down his judgment in the Royal Courts of Justice last week, Mr Justice Saini said there was no basis for a prosecution of Trudi Warner, 69, for criminal contempt for holding a placard outside the trial of climate activists that informed jurors of their right to acquit a defendant based on their conscience. Warner, a retired social worker, was being pursued for contempt of cou ..read more

We have responded to two consultations run by the financial regulators, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA). We’re concerned that the proposals will force regulated firms to embed politically contentious diversity and inclusion policies deeper into their businesses. We have shared with both regulators our first-hand experience of the chilling effect on free speech that diversity and inclusion initiatives have already had for employees of these firms, not least the de-banking of Nigel Farage at Coutts. The FCA consultation proposes requiring firms ..read more