David Booth

Retired policy researcher, governance for development; engaged UK citizen

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

David Lammy is spearheading the biggest assault on English liberty — particularly free speech — in more than 800 years.

He is pushing through authoritarian plans to slash our right to jury trials, claiming this is the only way to tackle the backlog of 80,000 cases in the Crown Court. Yet there is no credible evidence to support that claim.

Judges, lawyers, opposition MPs, Labour MPs and victims of crime have all warned that these reforms will undermine public trust in the criminal justice system.

Meanwhile, 93 of the 532 Crown Court courtrooms in England and Wales are sitting empty today — 17 per cent of the total.

It is blindingly obvious that jury trials are not the problem. Unused court capacity is.

Open the courts. Save our jury trials.

[spiked @spikedonline]

Two-tier justice isn’t a ‘myth’ or a ‘far-right conspiracy theory’. It’s the reality of a British police force reared on a diet of critical racial theory and identity politics. The authorities’ horrific treatment of Henry Nowak demands a reckoning, says Hugo Timms
https://t.co/wO5PFru5JK

[David Booth @DavidBoothODI]

Kemi gives me hope https://t.co/wKqtfYOvwZ

[Dr Aseem Malhotra @DrAseemMalhotra]

BREAKING:

‘Millions across the world may be in clear and present danger of suffering premature (heart) cardiovascular disease and cancer ( due to Covid mRNA jab) Without allowing all scientists to debate this openly, without fear of censure, we will not be able to identify who is most at risk and how these risks can be mitigated."

https://t.co/WigFURwvMO

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

The Free Speech Union has long warned that the official definition of Islamophobia — now repackaged as “anti-Muslim hostility” — would be used to silence legitimate criticism of Islam.

Within weeks, Labour MPs had reported Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, branded him an “Islamophobe”, and called on the Prime Minister to remove him from his post.

Last week, 27 Labour MPs reported Reform UK to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), accusing the party of Islamophobia and urging the Commission to investigate.

Led by Afzal Khan, a leading campaigner for an official Islamophobia definition, the MPs cited Nigel Farage’s criticism of the mass Muslim prayer event in Trafalgar Square, alongside comments made by Lee Anderson and Sarah Pochin.

This definition is already being weaponised to silence those who criticise Islam. It amounts to an Islamic blasphemy law by the back door.

Hear from FSU Campaigns Officer @MaxHThompson 👇

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

🚨 Reform policy announcement:

We will pass the Equal Treatment Act.

It would ban Police Race Action Plans, DEI practices in the Police and end the religious exemption to carry deadly weapons.

The tragic death of Henry Nowak is a horrific example of two-tier policing in Britain. 

The accusation of racism was dealt with more seriously than the accusation of being stabbed.

This is a direct result of police initiatives like the Hampshire Police Race Action Plan which trains officers to prioritise “harm to ethnic minority communities”.

All races and faiths must be treated equally, and structural anti-white prejudice embedded in policing must end.

A Reform Government will pass an Equal Treatment Act and end two tier policing for good.

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

🚨The BBC had just sunk to a new low.

On Newsnight last night, presenter Matt Chorley claimed Nigel Farage said people should respond to the murder of Henry Nowak with “white cold rage”.

Nigel DID NOT SAY THIS.

The insertion of the word “white” by the BBC is obviously designed to change the meaning completely.

It was no slip of the tongue, Chorley said it THREE TIMES.

He came prepared to defame Nigel and lie to the country.

This is disgusting from the BBC.

Why do they insist on spitting in the faces of the millions of Reform supporters who are forced to contribute to their salaries?

THE BBC MUST APOLOGISE IMMEDIATELY

[Paul Embery @PaulEmbery]

Was it wrong to “politicise” the Stephen Lawrence murder? Or that of George Floyd? What does the word “politicise” even mean in that context? Don’t tell me that it is right to “rage against the machine” when state authorities fail black murder victims for reasons connected with race, but that we are obliged not to “stir up tensions” when the victim happens to be white. It is this two-tier approach that is fuelling tensions and division. Can the establishment not see it?

[Matt Goodwin @GoodwinMJ]

Nigel Farage is not “whipping up division”.

He is calling for the removal of a policy regime that has actually whipped up division for 30 yrs.

It tells whites they are racist.

It tells Brits they are oppressors.

It tells police, teachers, university lecturers they are “anti-racist activists” — not neutral officials.

It even led Keir Starmer & David Lammy to think it’s a good idea to give more lenient prison sentences to minorities.

This is what Labour and the Tories created - this is their legacy.

And this is what led police officers to prioritise allegations of “racism” over doing their job correctly.

It is what allowed the grooming gangs to flourish.

It is what prevented the security guard from stopping the Manchester Islamist bombing.

It is what prevented officials from stopping Axel Rudakubana.

It is what stopped them from detaining the Nottingham murderer.

And it has now clearly also played a role in the murder of Henry Nowak.

If we really want to end division in Britain then it starts with what Nigel Farage is calling for.

Treat everybody equally before the law —irrespective of their race & ethnicity.

End political correctness.

Reverse Keir Starmer’s crackdown on free speech.

Stop trying to control what we can say about some identity groups but not others.

Stop politicising our supposedly independent public institutions (which we pay for).

Root out all diversity, equality, and inclusion policies in those institutions, none of which are based on evidence anyway.

And stop reshaping our entire society around this perverse, dangerous, unBritish ideology.

Only Nigel Farage understands what needs to be done.

He’s not causing division - he is trying to stop it.

[David Booth @DavidBoothODI]

Nigel Farage: Henry Nowak’s murder should be a wake-up call https://t.co/iuPWZRqLZ8

[Laila Cunningham @policylaila]

This is why Britain is a low-growth, high-tax economy. Those figures come from a pro-net zero lobby group commissioning its own research to justify its own agenda.
What she fails to mention is that this industry wouldn’t “thrive” without British households paying billions a year each to subsidise a racket that makes us all poorer.

This is not a free market success story. It is a state-backed transfer of wealth that was enshrined in law by the Tories.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

🚨 South Wales Police are zealously enforcing their own definition of Islamophobia in a way that threatens free speech.

The force has instructed staff to log anything that goes beyond what it considers a “legitimate” discussion of Islam.

This subjective definition gives officers the power to decide what constitutes acceptable speech and risks having a chilling effect on free expression.

The Free Speech Union has written to South Wales Police calling on them to withdraw the guidance. If they fail to do so, we have threatened legal action by way of judicial review.

FSU General Secretary Lord Young said South Wales Police risked “penalising people for expressing misgivings about Islam”, contrary to free speech protections enshrined in law. Britain’s blasphemy laws were abolished by Parliament in 2008.

Lord Young added: “The Government was careful to include free speech safeguards in its official definition of anti-Muslim hostility, making clear that it was not intended to inhibit criticism of Islam or Islamic religious practices, such as ritual public prayer.

“Our concern is that police forces and other public bodies adopting the definition will gold-plate it, ignoring those safeguards and penalising people for expressing misgivings about Islam, even when those views are rooted in evidence rather than prejudice.

“In particular, we are concerned that the default police response to reports of anti-Muslim hostility — even where they clearly fall outside the definition — will be to record them as ‘anti-social behaviour incidents’, the new name for ‘non-crime hate incidents’. Those records may then be disclosed in enhanced DBS checks.”

The Government announced its official definition of “anti-Muslim hostility” in March, alongside plans to appoint an Islamophobia tsar.

South Wales Police’s interpretation adds an extra phrase to the Government’s definition that could have a chilling effect on free speech and potentially affect people’s employment prospects.

As a result of this policy, individuals may be unable to predict whether their lawful speech or beliefs will be recorded by the police, or how any resulting record may be used, retained or relied upon.

We understand that several other police forces have adopted their own definitions of Islamophobia.

Read more below 👇

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

📣🚨 FSU VICTORY!

FSU member James Cooper has been acquitted of violent disorder at Manchester Crown Court (Crown Square).

On 31 July 2024, in the wake of the horrific Southport murders, James attended a protest outside the Holiday Inn on Oldham Road, which was housing asylum seekers.

James was one of around 50–70 people at the protest. He was arrested and charged with violent disorder under Section 2 of the Public Order Act 1986, an offence carrying a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

Having seen a Facebook post about the demonstration, James attended and filmed events. Unlike some of the other protesters, he was not involved in any violent acts.

The Crown’s case against him was weak. Prosecutors argued that James had committed violent disorder simply by being present in the vicinity of the crowd, shouting remarks such as “shithouses” and “what would you do if it was one of your kids”, as well as engaging in a robust exchange with a police officer. They claimed this amounted to using or threatening violence.

Giving evidence, James firmly denied using or threatening violence and said he had attended what he believed would be a peaceful protest. He explained that he had shouted at police officers because he felt they were being heavy-handed.

Today, after around two hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously acquitted James. This verdict once again demonstrates the importance of jury trials — an ancient right that the Government wishes to dilute — in cases involving freedom of expression and protest.

The Free Speech Union was pleased to support James and fund his legal defence. He was represented by barrister Adam King and solicitor Luke Gittos.

In the wake of the Southport murders, we saw public order legislation enforced with extraordinary zeal, often at the expense of legitimate dissent and protest.

We are pleased to have been able to help James secure this outcome.

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

Andy Burnham responded to George Floyd’s death by releasing a huge statement expressing his “revulsion at the manner of (his) death”.

He said he knew the “anger and the agony is real”.

He spent taxpayer money lighting civic buildings to honour him and created a Greater Manchester Race Equality Panel.

Yet he has not mentioned Henry Nowak once.

Not once.

Henry was murdered by a sikh man and handcuffed by the police and left to bleed out.

The police are refusing to release the bodycam footage.

Burnham has nothing to say.

All for the same reason: poor Henry was a white man.

Burnham is the same as Starmer, who has also said nothing.

He must not be allowed to become PM.

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

27 young non-EU migrants have been hired in Britain for every ONE young Brit.

Read that again.

A whole generation of Brits have had their lives destroyed by the Tory and Labour open borders regime.

Reform will abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain, deport all illegal migrants and prioritise British people for British jobs.

[Matt Goodwin @GoodwinMJ]

A nation is defined by how it treats its own but especially its children.

In the UK, it’s just been revealed that for every ONE young British person companies hire, they hire TWENTY-SEVEN young people from outside Europe.

And this is happening at the very same time our political class has left 1,000,000 young Brits on the scrap heap —not in education, employment or training.

This is, put simply, a disgrace.

Our politicians lecture us about the ‘benefits’ of mass immigration to project their own sense of moral superiority over everybody else while openly betraying our own young people.

I pointed to this very reality in my book Suicide of a Nation, and all the evidence that has come out in the weeks since just confirms my argument.

If a nation is not putting its own people first then that nation will soon no longer exist.

Vote Reform.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

102 of the 532 Crown Court courtrooms across England and Wales are sitting empty today. That’s 18%.

At the same time, David Lammy claims that slashing our fundamental right to trial by jury is the only way to tackle the Crown Court backlog of 80,000 cases.

He says this despite there being no credible evidence to support the claim — and despite repeated warnings from lawyers and victims of crime that it would undermine trust in the criminal justice system.

It’s time for Lammy to put his ego aside and U-turn.

Open the courts. Save jury trials.

[Kathy Gyngell @KathyConWom]

We are facing a transformation in the demographic character of our country within half a lifetime, driven almost entirely by sustained high immigration, which no one ever voted for.

The British people are being betrayed.

The words of @MigrationWatch, the truth about net migration.

https://t.co/rBzpgIBlZW

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

I am under attack for saying Labour’s claims about getting immigration under control are fake.
Because they are fake.
The situation is horrendous, much worse than people know.
Hundreds of thousands of rejected illegal migrants are still here. Deportations are a tiny fraction.

[Dr Clare Craig @ClareCraigPath]

The contrast between reality (diarrhoea from shigella) and the way it was reported is enormous.

There should be consequences.

But there never are.