They did it. They only did it! Man City have just beaten Inter 1:0 in the UEFA Champions League Final. They’d never won it before, and they’ve now won the treble this season (FA Cup, Premier League, and now this). Their Wiki page is interesting. Not so much as one woman on the company board or management team – as it should be, obviously. Women have no place in men’s sports organizations, soccer or otherwise. Let women create and run their own sports organizations, rather than being PARASITES on the men’s games as they are in soccer, rugby, tennis, golf and so many other sports.

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I watch little soccer other than during World Cups, but a match in Istanbul this evening should be something special, so I’l be catching it. The live coverage on BT Sport’s YouTube channel started a few minutes ago, and the match starts in almost two hours’ time, at 8pm BST. Enjoy!

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Our thanks to Ed Bartlett of the Washington DC-based Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance (DAVIA) for this press release. We’re an active member of DAVIA which is sponsoring the International Conference on Men’s Issues in Budapest, Hungary, in August 2024.

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We’re linking daily to selected audio / video files from our YouTube channel. Today’s file is one of 18 from the first ICMI, held near Detroit in 2014, here (video, 44:50).

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Just published. BoJo could never have received a fair hearing from a kangaroo court chaired by Harriet Harman. The Mail article doesn’t include BoJo’s letter of resignation in full, so here it is:

I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament. They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons. They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister. They know that I corrected the record as soon as possible; and they know that I and every other senior official and minister – including the current Prime Minister and then occupant of the same building, Rishi Sunak – believed that we were working lawfully together. I have been an MP since 2001. I take my responsibilities seriously. I did not lie, and I believe that in their hearts the Committee know it. But they have wilfully chosen to ignore the truth because from the outset their purpose has not been to discover the truth, or genuinely to understand what was in my mind when I spoke in the Commons. Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts. This is the very definition of a kangaroo court. Most members of the Committee – especially the chair – had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks about my guilt before they had even seen the evidence. They should have recused themselves. In retrospect it was naive and trusting of me to think that these proceedings could be remotely useful or fair. But I was determined to believe in the system, and in justice, and to vindicate what I knew to be the truth. It was the same faith in the impartiality of our systems that led me to commission Sue Gray. It is clear that my faith has been misplaced. Of course, it suits the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP to do whatever they can to remove me from parliament. Sadly, as we saw in July last year, there are currently some Tory MPs who share that view. I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch hunt underway, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result. My removal is the necessary first step, and I believe there has been a concerted attempt to bring it about. I am afraid I no longer believe that it is any coincidence that Sue Gray – who investigated gatherings in Number 10 – is now the chief of staff designate of the Labour leader. Nor do I believe that it is any coincidence that her supposedly impartial chief counsel, Daniel Stilitz KC, turned out to be a strong Labour supporter who repeatedly tweeted personal attacks on me and the government. When I left office last year the government was only a handful of points behind in the polls. That gap has now massively widened. Just a few years after winning the biggest majority in almost half a century, that majority is now clearly at risk. Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do. We need to show how we are making the most of Brexit and we need in the next months to be setting out a pro-growth and pro-investment agenda. We need to cut business and personal taxes – and not just as pre-election gimmicks – rather than endlessly putting them up. We must not be afraid to be a properly Conservative government. Why have we so passively abandoned the prospect of a Free Trade Deal with the US? Why have we junked measures to help people into housing or to scrap EU directives or to promote animal welfare? We need to deliver on the 2019 manifesto, which was endorsed by 14 million people. We should remember that more than 17 million voted for Brexit. I am now being forced out of parliament by a tiny handful of people, with no evidence to back up their assertions, and without the approval even of Conservative party members let alone the wider electorate. I believe that a dangerous and unsettling precedent is being set. The Conservative Party has the time to recover its mojo and its ambition and to win the next election. I had looked forward to providing enthusiastic support as a backbench MP. Harriet Harman’s committee has set out to make that objective completely untenable. The Committee’s report is riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice but under their absurd and unjust process I have no formal ability to challenge anything they say. The Privileges Committee is there to protect the privileges of parliament. That is a very important job. They should not be using their powers – which have only been very recently designed – to mount what is plainly a political hitjob on someone they oppose. It is in no one’s interest, however, that the process the Committee has launched should continue for a single day further. So I have today written to my Association in Uxbridge and South Ruislip to say that I am stepping down forthwith and triggering an immediate by-election. I am very sorry to leave my wonderful constituency. It has been a huge honour to serve them, both as Mayor and MP. But I am proud that after what is cumulatively a 15 year stint I have helped to deliver among other things a vast new railway in the Elizabeth Line and full funding for a wonderful new state of the art hospital for Hillingdon, where enabling works have already begun. I also remain hugely proud of all that we achieved in my time in office as Prime Minister: getting Brexit done, winning the biggest majority for 40 years and delivering the fastest vaccine roll out of any major European country, as well as leading global support for Ukraine. It is very sad to be leaving parliament – at least for now – but above all I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out, anti-democratically, by a committee chaired and managed, by Harriet Harman, with such egregious bias.

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I’m currently planning to relocate to Northern Ireland early next year – property prices there are more affordable than in the rest of the UK, and lower than in Ireland – and I’m drawn to County Fermanagh for a number of reasons, including the scenery and the multitude of rivers and lakes. Checking out some YouTube videos on the county, I stumbled across Funny Wolf-Whistlers in Fermanagh, filmed in 2009 and presented by the video journalist Aislinn Hagan, whose YT channel is here. I warmed to almost all of the people Aislinn interviewed, with the exception of one or two hatchet-faced harpies.  I think I could enjoy living in the county for the rest of my days.

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The UK edition (unlike the Australian edition) of The Spectator, to which I subscribe, has long been feminist-compliant. Julie Bindel has writes 50+ articles for them over the years, full of complete nonsense on a number of issues including domestic violence. Followers of this blog may recall that the feminist editrix of the UK edition refused to accept a print edition advert stating facts about DV which have been known to researchers, and anyone with an interest in the subject, for decades. We were prepared to seek the money (£7,000+) through a crowdfunder. It would have been published in just one (weekly) edition. Open letters to the overall editor, Fraser Nelson, remain unanswered to this day. For the new edition (10 June) of The Spectator one of their regular columnists, Rod Liddle, penned an interesting piece titled What terfs get wrong. I posted some comments, almost identical to those I posted recently on a SubStack article by Professor Matt Goodwin, for which he thanked me (publicly, in the comments stream). My comments automatically went to the moderator(s) who duly trashed them. The screensaves of my comments, and my later request (also trashed) to the moderator(s) to email me their reasoning for the deletion, are here. I shall now have the pleasure of sending them a link to this blog piece.

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Our thanks to a supporter for this. The full text of the document:

15 ACTIONS MEN CAN TAKE TO PROTECT THEMSELVES AGAINST FEMINISM

Feminists Want to Take Men’s Lives – Your Home, Your Family, Your Job. 

DEFEND YOURSELF.

1. RECOGNISE THAT WOMEN HAVE BECOME WEAPONISED AS USEFUL IDIOTS BY MARXIST FEMINISTS. The world has changed. Since 2010, new laws, amended laws and new application of old laws have radically widened the definitions of domestic abuse, sexual assault, discrimination, harassment, stalking and rape to such an extent that just about anything a man does can now be classed as a crime. Subjective interpretation and intentionally ambiguous definitions are key enabling features. Under Home Office guidance, the police must now Accept everything a woman says, Believe everything a woman says and Check very little (ABC policy). All female accusers are referred to as “victims.” Under the Positive Action Policy of the Met Police YOU WILL be arrested. Under the Zero Tolerance policies of the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution Service YOU WILL be prosecuted. YOU WILL be treated as guilty until proven innocent and YOU WILL have to prove your innocence. Feminists especially prey on women with probable mental disorders – sadly now  27% of young women aged 17-22 according to the NHS – to destroy men, boys & families through false, exaggerated & trivial allegations. Feminists want women to hate the ones they love.

2. SHUN FEMINISTS AND VINDICTIVE PSYCHOS. Treat the 7% of people that identify as feminists as you would treat terrorists, whether or not they’re married. False or exaggerated claims can be made by any woman against any man and feminists are far more likely than non-feminists to do this. Avoid women with degrees in gender studies, use the word “victim,” or think the solution to their problems is to report pettiness to the police (or anyone for that matter).  Assume all women are feminists until proven to be anti-feminists.  Vindictive psychos are more difficult to avoid – you never know until it’s too late.  Men have always had to deal with psychos, usually by gently walking away, but these days they can come back with a vengeance with false or petty claims and with the police and CPS by their side. Try screening them out by only proceeding with dating if they sign a statutory declaration under penalty of perjury that they have never made an allegation of rape, harassment, stalking, domestic abuse, bullying or trolling. You can both sign one to be fair about it. Never have sex with them if they’ve had more than two drinks – they lack legal capacity to consent and they or their feminist friend can later accuse you of rape (but they will still be held legally responsible if they drink drive).

3. INSURE YOURSELF AGAINST FEMINIST ACCUSATIONS. If you are a man and falsely accused and charged by the police or the CPS you will need money to defend yourself. Check your home insurance, which may cover legal defence.  Alternatively, keep £30,000 in a bank account as a legal defence fund. This account cannot be a joint account and your partner must be unaware of its existence. The British justice system de-facto presumes men are guilty until proven innocent and innocence may be expensive to prove.

4. PROTECT YOURSELF WITH TECHNOLOGY. Theresa May oversaw the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, which compels all ISPs to log every website you and your family have visited over the past 12 months and make this information available to local police and social workers without warrant. She claimed this was to fight terrorism but it will be re-purposed to fight men. Fight back. Encrypt all of your hard drives. Use no-log VPNs for your internet connection.  Send messages only on end-to-end encrypted platforms such as Signal or iMessage. Keep every message and email a woman has ever sent to you and audio record any sexual activity (but don’t video). You will need this in court to prove your innocence.

5. STICK TOGETHER AS A FAMILY. Family breakdown in the UK is now the highest in Europe thanks to state policy and the court system. You, your wife and your children are the best defence against a male-hating, family-hostile state. Be united in your defence of your children, your property, your religion and your family values against the state’s attack on families. Spend time with your family building love and trust with each other. Be honest with each other. Protect each other to the death.

6. DISTRUST POLICE AND CIVIL SERVANTS. Meet them with a wall of silence. Teach your children NEVER to speak to these people without you or a solicitor present. This is especially true for your teenage or older boys. Don’t be naïve – NHS staff and state school teachers are now social services informants. 20% of all children in the UK under the age of five have been reported to social services. Don’t engage in conversation – tell them the minimum information needed to conclude whatever transaction it is you have with them. Do not cooperate with the police, especially the Community Service Unit (social justice warriors with powers of arrest). They will lie, twist and exaggerate to create a case against you. Video or voice record every conversation or encounter you have with the police, CAFCASS, social services, NHS staff or any other state worker. Your iPhone is your best weapon and your best defence.

7. AVOID NON-COMMITTAL NORTHERN EUROPEAN, BRITISH AND AMERICAN WOMEN. Avoid women from the Anglosphere, where feminism is most severe, and avoid living in countries that have ratified the Istanbul Convention. Two-thirds of divorces in the US and UK are now initiated by women, not men. Domestic violence allegations are their weapon of choice in getting custody of your children and your money. Acrimonious UK divorces now threaten husbands with criminal records. Don’t be conned by these feminist-inspired women. Sign prenuptial agreements with a view to keeping your wife honest through sickness and in health, but be aware English courts are not legally bound by these. Do not date women who demonstrate a sense of entitlement, victimization or extreme emotional instability. Be particularly aware of women who threaten you when jealous or make up or exaggerate stories about other men they have dated. Reduce your risk by vetting all women you date with a background check, searches on their social media websites such as Facebook, questions about previous relationships and how they ended. If necessary, hire a private detective to ensure they don’t have a record of making false or petty allegations against previous partners.

8. EMBRACE WOMEN WITH STRONG FATHER FIGURES AND COMMON SENSE. If you are single, seek out women who admire their fathers and brothers. Find those who have experienced real life, who have known hardship, who grew up in well-adjusted social households with fathers and brothers. Seek women who know life is filled with ups and downs.  Date family-orientated women who want to make their marriage work, who reject the twisted feminist view of marriage as a power struggle and accept marriage as teamwork.

9. STARVE THE STATE BY MINIMISING YOUR TAXES. 75% of income tax in the UK is paid by men. This is in addition to spousal support & child support payments paid by men, many of whom are blocked by state agencies such as CAFCASS or family courts from seeing their children. Taxes paid by men are then used against them by a feminist-controlled state to fund its war against men & families. Tax is theft. Practice legal tax avoidance & stop funding the state’s war on men.

10. STAY OUT OF THE SYSTEM. Schools are failing boys. Boys now comprise only 40% of university students. The heavily feminised education system is hostile to boys and teaches feminism and identity politics, not critical thinking. Elite private schools are the worst. Mandatory Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) classes is where much of the indoctrination occurs. Be very active in monitoring RSE material and consider joining a home-schooling group.

11. DITCH YOUR TV LICENSE AND STOP FUNDING THE BBC. Broadcast television media, most notably the BBC, have become rabidly anti-male.  Men are depicted as bumbling idiots and worse. Almost all male news presenters have been purged. Starve the BBC by declaring you do not watch live TV and stop paying your TV Licence. You can still stream Netflix and watch DVDs. Your mental health will improve tenfold.

12. BE RESILIENT. Suicide is now the leading cause of death of males aged between 15-49 in the UK. Men are killing themselves at a rate more than three times higher than women. When a man loses his children, his family and his rights in a system stacked against him it is easy to lose all hope. Be resilient. Join men to build or fix something, eg Men’s Shed.

13. BE GREAT AT WHAT YOU DO. Don’t let the feminists drag you down. Be great at your sport, your business, your intellectual pursuits, or whatever it is you choose to do. Men have a unique ability to compartmentalise and focus without distraction on achieving success. Don’t let feminists stop you. Keep achieving.

14. STAY HUMAN. Don’t turn into a politically-correct male automaton. Don’t shut down your emotions, your masculinity or your sex drive. Simply find safe locations and trusted friends to express your humanity. Exercise every day.  Men especially need it. Feel the testosterone and endorphins. Be physically alive.

15. EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS & FIGHT BACK. Most men & families in the UK are unaware of how their rights have been assaulted by the state’s actions and changed over the past years. Get informed & stay informed. Know your rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. Exercise and stand up for your rights and family values. Recognise the laws are wrong, Police and CPS application of the law is wrong and the justice system has become politicised. Engage in non-violent civil disobedience with others. Due process and free speech no longer exist. Be prepared to risk getting arrested.

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Dear Mike Buchanan,

Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week. As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join and help turn the tide against cancel culture. You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons at the bottom of this email (although not if you’re reading this on a desktop). If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

Oxfam worker hounded out of charity for defending JK Rowling

An ex-Oxfam employee was forced out of the charity over her support for JK Rowling. (Mail, Telegraph, UnHerd). Initially, the woman was subject to an internal petition by 70 fellow employees that accused her of “transphobia”. Having been placed under investigation by management, she was then made to endure a gruelling disciplinary investigation that culminated in her being issued with a final warning – an outcome that led to her suffering a nervous breakdown. Her crime? Questioning colleagues who wanted to ban the Harry Potter books from all Oxfam bookshops!

Oxfam GB, the British wing of the charity, has now settled a claim in employment tribunal brought by the former staff member who coordinated its women’s rights team. In other words, Oxfam has capitulated.

Maria, which is not her real name, spoke to the women’s rights activist Julie Bindel about her case. She was a member of a company-wide LGBTQ+ group, when, in September 2020, a shop manager who was a trans woman asked in the group: “What is your opinion on selling JK Rowling books?”

The manager claimed she was deeply troubled. Rowling’s latest thriller, Troubled Blood, had cunningly been foisted on a naïve and unwitting public under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, she said. Might there not be “highly transphobic” content lurking behind that smokescreen, she fretted? And shouldn’t this sort of thing be covered by Oxfam’s “unsuitable for sale” policy, she wondered. Never mind Troubled Blood, what about the transphobic author’s other books, staff members protested? Could any of it really be regarded as suitable for sale in Oxfam’s bookshops?

At this point, Maria, a former pre-school teacher and sexual assault centre volunteer who moved from Spain to the UK in 2017, felt compelled to introduce a jarring note into this comradely and commendably high-spirited witch hunt. “Can you explain why she is transphobic or why the book is transphobic?” she asked.

Her message received no response, which prompted her to point out that Rowling was “one of the most important women writers in the UK”. When that message also received no response, Maria continued: “Stopping selling something we don’t like is called censorship and is the opposite of freedom of speech.”

Rather than taking the coward’s way out and responding directly, 70 of Maria’s colleagues decided to sign a petition on the company intranet instead, demanding bosses “take a stand” and “communicate a zero-tolerance approach to transphobia”.

Maria was subsequently told by a manager that her “incredible” views would be reported, and that she could well lose her job for her comments. Three days after that interaction, she was placed under investigation for “transphobic comments”. Six weeks later, and just two days before Christmas, she was issued with a final warning for having “breached the requirement of the code of conduct to treat all persons with respect and dignity”.

Feeling that she had no choice but to resign, Maria brought an employment tribunal claim for constructive dismissal and belief discrimination, which Oxfam settled during judicial mediation in July last year.

Speaking to Julie Bindel, Maria said: “I hope every single woman, especially those stronger and richer than me, fight every time this happens within the charity sector. Oxfam is supposed to be protecting women and girls in the most vulnerable situations all over the world, and this ideology will ruin it.”

Maria’s reference to the “charity sector” is particularly apt, Julie said: “What Maria experienced is part of a wider woke culture in the charitable sector, where female employees are silenced and treated like bigots for believing that sex-based rights matter.”

Edinburgh University delays screening of gender-critical film for third time

A group of Edinburgh University academics is calling on the University to ensure a screening of Adult Human Female – a gender-critical documentary – can finally go ahead, having twice seen it get cancelled because of opposition from trans activists (Mail, Telegraph).

The Edinburgh branch of Academics for Academic Freedom’s (AFAF’s) appeal to the university’s senior administrators comes after the gender critical feminist philosopher Dr Kathleen Stock’s much publicised talk at the Oxford Union Debating Society went ahead as planned last week thanks to “good leadership”, and despite fierce opposition from hundreds of students.

It was “shameful”, Edinburgh AFAF said, that no events advocating for women’s rights on the basis of sex have been allowed to take place on campus to their knowledge during the past academic year. The group also said there is no balance of debate on campus, pointing out that several public events platforming gender-identity theory “uncritically” have gone ahead at the university during that same time period.

The statement continued: “In the immediate aftermath of the second sabotage of our screening and discussion, we said that senior leaders in the university have failed to uphold their legal and moral responsibility to promote and defend academic freedom. The prompt and decisive action we hoped for has not materialised.”

The screening of Adult Human Female has now been delayed, supposedly until the start of the next academic year, because the university’s management claims it is unable to make appropriate security arrangements.

In response to the academics’ intervention, a spokesperson for the University said: “We are in discussion with the organisers of the screening of the film Adult Human Female, and others in our community, with the aim of identifying a suitable approach for screening the film safely.”

If the “others in our community” that the spokesperson is alluding to are in fact the same “others” that twice successfully sabotaged the screening on the basis that any expression of belief in the immutable biological reality of sex is tantamount to ‘transphobia’, then it’s difficult to see how the ‘discussion’ could reach a satisfactory conclusion before the start of the next academic year in September.

Labour MSP forced out of Holyrood equalities event after one trans complaint

Following a formal complaint to Scottish Labour, the frontbench MSP Ms McNeill has now pulled out of co-hosting an event titled ‘The Meaning of Sex Under the Equality Act 2010’ at Holyrood next week (National, Scotsman, Spectator, Unherd).

The event was to have featured prominent gender critical activist and Executive Director of campaign group Sex Matters, Maya Forstater, as well as barrister Naomi Cunningham, legal academic Dr Michael Foran, and Dr Helen Joyce, the author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.

Holyrood descended into vicious in-fighting over the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Act, which will make it easier for transgender people to legally change sex.

The Act was passed with cross-party backing in December last year, but the Westminster Government blocked it from becoming law, claiming it was unconstitutional because of its impact on the Equality Act 2010, which applies in the whole of the UK, not just Scotland. That decision is now subject to a legal challenge from the Scottish Government.

Ms McNeill, who is Scottish Labour’s justice spokesperson, is an outspoken critic of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Act. She was due to co-host next week’s event with Ash Regan, the SNP MSP who resigned from the Scottish Government over her opposition to the Bill.

The formal complaint received by Scottish Labour claimed the timing of the event and the invitation to attend it, which was sent to all MSPs on the first day of Pride Month, “appears to be a deliberate attack on trans people and their allies”.

A Scottish Labour source said not only that it was the right decision for Ms McNeill to step away from the event, but that “[she] should never have organised it in the first place and I hope she apologises publicly for it”.

How or why Scottish Labour reached that conclusion is unclear: as per the recent Forstater, Bailey and Mackereth employment tribunal rulings, gender critical beliefs expressed within the context of a Parliamentary seminar on equalities law would appear prima facie to be “protected philosophical beliefs” under the Equality Act 2010, and not an attack on trans people or their allies.

This is a familiar line of argument and has been used many times before to shut down debate about the conflict between trans rights and women’s sex-based rights. This isn’t just any old debate, however. As Stephen Daisley pointed out in the Spectator, when a major political party prevents one of its MSPs from meeting with lawyers and women’s rights campaigners at the Scottish parliament to discuss legislation passed by the Scottish parliament it sets a worrying new precedent. “Don’t like an MSP attending an event or meeting with a particular group?” No problem. “Just whack in a complaint. That’s exactly what will happen next time a Labour MSP plans to host or attend a meeting with gender self-identification activists, and if the outcome is not the same as here it will only heighten tensions.”

Latest episode of the FSU’s podcast is out now!

On the latest episode of the FSU’s podcast, That’s Debatable!, hosts Tom and Ben celebrate ex-civil servant Anna Thomas’s victory over the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

We recently helped Anna win a £100,000 settlement from the DWP after she was fired for raising the alarm about politically controversial workplace messaging involving critical race theory and gender ideology.

As Tom and Ben point out, the DWP’s six-figure pay out to Anna should be a source of great succour to employees in both the private and public sectors currently grappling with some of the more radical diversity, equity and inclusion agendas that have crept into the workplace.

In this clip from the episode, Tom and Ben talk about how the FSU is now building on Anna’s win with our new campaign to halt the politicisation of the Civil Service – it’s a great discussion, and well worth a quick listen.

During the rest of the podcast, Tom and Ben discuss the origins of the authoritarianism creeping into contemporary youth culture, as well as the news that broke over the weekend regarding government-backed censorship of lockdown sceptics during the Covid pandemic.

You can download the episode in full – and for free – by clicking here. And don’t forget to search for That’s Debatable! on your favourite podcasting app and hit “subscribe” so you don’t miss next week’s episode.

Sharron Davies MBE book launch – book now!

Of all the issues thrown up by the rise of gender ideology and the push for trans-inclusivity, safety and fairness in women’s sport is probably the one that has grabbed most mainstream attention. And yet, too often, the debate has been shut down, with those raising questions being accused of ‘transphobia’. One of the most stalwart defenders of the integrity of women’s sports is the British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies MBE.

We are therefore delighted to host the official launch of Sharron’s new book, Unfair Play: The Battle for Women’s Sport, on Wednesday 5th July. Join us online or in-person in central London to hear from Sharron about why she wrote the book and the struggles she’s faced to get her arguments heard.

We have brought together a superb panel to discuss the issues with Sharron, including Dr Emma Hilton, the award-winning development biologist who has advised various sporting bodies on transgender policy, including World Rugby, as well as Cathy Devine, an independent researcher who has published widely in the areas of sport policy, equality and human rights for girls and women over the last 15 years.

In the chair will be the FSU’s Education and Events Director, Dr Jan Macvarish.

There will be an audience Q&A and plenty of time to socialise afterwards over a complimentary glass of wine, courtesy of Swift Press. The book will also be on sale on the night and Sharron will be signing copies.

In-person tickets with a discount price for FSU members can be purchased here. Members who prefer to watch the event online can register here. And non-FSU members who want to watch online can pay £5 to register here.

FSU Summer Speakeasies – tickets now available!

If you live in the Cambridge area, the first of our regional Summer Speakeasies is taking place on Thursday 15th June. Journalist and writer Jane Robins will interview FSU founder Toby Young about his perspective on the battle for free speech, and much more. There will, of course, be plenty of time for socialising with fellow free speech supporters. FSU members can book tickets free of charge for themselves and their friends. Non-members pay £10. Book your places here.

If you can get to Edinburgh on Wednesday 19th July, do please join us for our Summer Speakeasy on a particularly timely subject, ‘Can the Arts Survive and Thrive in Scotland?’ Taking place just weeks before the Edinburgh Festival, where comedian Jerry Sadowitz will return with his show in defiance of last year’s cancellation, and with our Scottish Advisory Council member Joanna Cherry MP due to speak after an unsuccessful attempt to no-platform her, our guest speakers – poet Jenny Lindsay, actress and producer Kirstin McLean and author Ewan Morrison – will take us through the free speech issues faced by artists, writers and performers, and discuss how we can stand up for the right of audiences to judge for themselves. Get your tickets here.

On Thursday 20th July, we’ll be in Manchester with what looks set to be a fascinating event, ‘Free Speech: A Radical History’, which will focus on the city’s historic political struggles. We’ve invited two local historians – Michael Herbert of Red Flag Walks and Jonathan Schofield, tour guide and editor of Manchester Confidential – to share their knowledge and they’ll be joined by historian of US political history, Dr Cheryl Hudson. Tickets are available here.

We’re linking daily to selected audio / video files from our YouTube channel. Today’s file is one of 18 from the first ICMI, held near Detroit in 2014, here (video, 16:23).

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