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The Free Speech Union Profile picture
@SpeechUnion
Jul 1 • 6 tweets • 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
1/ When the Yorkshire Building Society asked longstanding customer Rev Richard Fothergill for feedback, he politely queried why his local branch was festooned with Pride flags. Four days later, the UK's third biggest mutual closed his savings account.
thetimes.co.uk/article/buildi…
2/ Rev Fothergill approached the FSU after his bank notified him of its decision. FSU Head Toby Young told @thetimes: “If you respond to a bank’s request for feedback in good faith you shouldn’t lose your account if you say something it doesn’t like."
3/ Toby also mentioned this case on @GBNews with @Nigel_Farage this week, during a discussion of the former UKIP leader's own recent de-banking.
4/ Rev Fothergill's case perfectly illustrates why the FSU is lobbying for a change to UK law so it becomes illegal for financial services providers to withhold or withdraw service from any customer in the UK for purely political reasons.
linkedin.com/pulse/free-spe…
5/ As we hurtle towards a cashless economy, cases of financial censorship are starting to crop up with alarming frequency. The issues at stake here go way beyond the politics of left or right—financial bullying has no place in a Western liberal democracy.
thecritic.co.uk/financial-cens…
6/ If you need to talk to someone about your own experience of financial censorship, then email our case team — full contact details are available at the link below.
freespeechunion.org/contact/

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More from @SpeechUnion

The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Jul 2
🧵THREAD

1/ When Yorkshire Building Society asked longstanding customer Rev Richard Fothergill for feedback, he politely queried why his local branch was festooned with Pride flags. Four days later the UK's third biggest mutual closed his savings account.
thetimes.co.uk/article/buildi…
2/ FSU member Rev Fothergill approached us for support after @Yorkshire_BS notified him of its decision. As FSU Head Toby Young told @thetimes: “If you respond to a bank’s request for feedback in good faith you shouldn’t lose your account if you say something it doesn’t like."
3/ Rev Fothergill's case perfectly illustrates why the FSU is lobbying for a change to UK law so it becomes illegal for financial services providers to withhold or withdraw service from any customer in the UK for purely political reasons.
linkedin.com/pulse/free-spe…
Read 19 tweets
The Free Speech Union Profile picture
May 26
OfS figures show a rise in the number of scheduled events not taking place at English universities—but the higher education watchdog warns that the data "may not show the full picture" of #cancelculture's chilling effect on the public sphere on campus.

timeshighereducation.com/english-regula…
As we point out in our research briefing on the Higher Education (#FreedomOfSpeech) Bill, which recently received Royal Assent, cancellation of visiting speakers isn't an adequate measure of the scale of the #freespeech crisis at English universities.

🔗freespeechunion.org/higher-educati… Image
Real evidence of the issue can be found, for example, in:

1/ Internal regulation of lawful speech.

thetimes.co.uk/article/cambri…
Read 7 tweets
The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Mar 25
The Worker Protection Bill will have grave implications for #freedomofspeech in this country, as well as imposing huge compliance costs on Britain’s businesses. This week, the legislation reached second reading in the #houseoflords, and there were some terrific speeches.
Clause 1 of the Bill imposes a duty on employers to take "all reasonable steps" to protect staff from overhearing upsetting remarks made by customers. As a publisher and museum trustee, Lord @IanStrathcarron was able to explain why this part of the Bill wouldn't work in practice.
If we were just talking about sexual harassment, that would be one thing, said Lord Moylan. But in an act of "overreach", the bill is attempting to extend third-party liability to every type of "unwanted conduct" prohibited by the Equality Act, including overheard comments.
Read 4 tweets
The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Mar 10
🚨 BREAKING: The FSU has written to the CEO of the Charity Commission, Helen Stephenson, asking her to open an investigation into Jamia Masjid Swafia, the Wakefield mosque at the centre of the recent 'Quran-gate' scandal.
freespeechunion.org/letter-to-the-…
Jamia Masjid Swafia is the Wakefield mosque at which the mother of a 14-year-old Kettlethorpe High School pupil recently appeared, seemingly in an effort to protect her son, who had been receiving death threats after accidentally dropping a copy of the Quran.
While she sat on a panel held at the mosque, dressed in a Muslim headscarf and modestly bowing her head, the Imam warned that the Muslim community wouldn’t tolerate "the slightest bit of disrespect" shown to the Quran, and if necessary would defend its honour with their lives.
Read 5 tweets
The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Feb 24
The University of Kent is advising all staff and students to call everyone "they" until their preferred pronouns are confirmed — according to the university's website, this will help to create an "authentic culture of inclusion" at the institution.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…
But will it? As Toby Young told the Mail: "Demanding that everyone declare their pronouns will require some people — e.g., gender critical feminists, orthodox Christians — to affirm something they don't believe to be true, i.e., that it's possible for a person to change sex."
The FSU is regularly contacted by members asking what to do about the fact an employer has asked them to declare their preferred gender pronouns, usually below their name at the bottom of an email. That’s why we've pulled together some FAQs on this issue.
freespeechunion.org/faqs-on-what-t…
Read 4 tweets
The Free Speech Union Profile picture
Feb 8
The Lords Amendments to the Higher Education (#FreedomofSpeech) Bill were debated in the #HouseofCommons last night and there was a great outcome—Amendment 10, which seeks to remove the right of students and staff to sue universities that breach their speech rights, was rejected!
Clause 4 of the legislation creates a statutory tort, which Amendment 10 sought to delete. The FSU's position is clear—the tort is what gives the legislation's new free speech duties teeth, and if it's removed then the Bill is essentially a dead letter.

🔗freespeechunion.org/higher-educati…
Among the MPs who rose to support the Government's decision to reject Amendment 10 were John Hayes, who described the tort as "an essential method to give weight to the Bill and teeth to the principles it embodies, and one that gives voice to those who currently feel voiceless".
Read 4 tweets

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