David Rose

Free Speech Union Director of Policy and Research. Writer and journalist; winner of multiple awards. Caver.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

The Canary has been debanked by Lloyds.

Debanking is one of the most pernicious forms of cancellation that an individual or organisation can face — something the FSU is only too familiar with.

Lloyds has provided no explanation for its decision and has not told The Canary when its funds will be returned.

We are in contact with The Canary and stand ready to help.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

“Net Zero had become a religion, and if you tried to question any aspect of it, you became a heretic.”

On this week’s FSU Podcast, our Research and Policy Director, @DavidRoseUK, is joined by @ClaireCoutinho, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, who previously served as Secretary of State in the last government.

Claire argues that one reason there has been so little free and open debate about Net Zero is the rise of cancel culture.

The Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — the censorious organisation set up by Sir Keir Starmer’s former Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney — has claimed that climate change denial is itself a form of hate.

Meanwhile, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change has argued that states should make it a criminal offence to publish misinformation about climate change and energy policy.

Criticism of Net Zero and government energy policy is increasingly being suppressed.

Claire believes we should be teaching people to think critically and debate robustly, not censoring dissent from yet another prevailing orthodoxy.

Watch the full podcast on our YouTube channel 👇

[The Jewish Chronicle @JewishChron]

Iran’s LGBT community can only long for joy of Pride in Tel Aviv

https://t.co/cZXkoVWzyd

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Yesterday, FSU Director of Policy and Research @DavidRoseUK sat down with Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, and Shadow Equalities Minister, @ClaireCoutinho to record our next podcast episode.

Claire is a longstanding friend of @SpeechUnion and a strong advocate for free speech. Most recently, she has been leading the Conservative Party’s effort to oppose Labour’s proposed Islamophobia definition — now repackaged “anti-Muslim hostility”.

In this wide-ranging interview, David and Claire discuss Net Zero, the Islamophobia definition, and Claire’s experience steering the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act through Parliament during the last government.

The episode will be released next Wednesday.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Parallel legislation in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons seeks to tackle lawsuits that try to “silence, intimidate or financially exhaust” journalists.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston and Sir John Whittingdale MP are set to introduce so-called anti-SLAPP Bills in Parliament, in what is being seen as “a rare demonstration of cross-chamber solidarity and pressure” to tackle what are known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs).

SLAPPs are aggressive legal actions designed to intimidate defendants and significantly increase their costs. They are generally brought by wealthy litigants — often large businesses — to prevent media organisations and authors from publishing damaging revelations.

Campaigners have called SLAPPs “abusive legal threats that are not necessarily intended to win in court, but rather to silence, intimidate or financially exhaust those speaking out in the public interest”.

According to the Anti-SLAPP Coalition, Britain is the leading jurisdiction for the use of these legal actions — more than the EU and the US combined.

Baroness Stowell’s Bill would give judges the ability to swiftly assess these types of cases and “dispose of Slapps at the earliest possible stage in the court proceedings”.

Under the proposed law, judges would have to balance a claimant’s access to justice against the public interest in the claim in question.

Ministers have repeatedly failed to tackle this issue despite committing to do so and failing to bring forward legislation.

SLAPPs — and their zealous use — are a threat to freedom of speech.

Baroness Stowell has argued: “for too long British courts have been used to hush-up unethical behaviour and corporate abuses”.

The Private Member’s Bill sponsored by Sir John Whittingdale in the Commons would include the same proposed changes.

Read more below in @thetimes 👇

[Matthew Scott @Barristerblog]

An extremely rare event: Court of Appeal quashes rape convictions in part due to incompetent defence representation at trial. (Appeal was in 2024, reported now following retrial). R v Nazir Ahmed [2024] EWCA Crim 1372. https://t.co/qZOlkkW43G

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Join over 50,000 people in signing the FSU petition to SAVE JURY TRIALS.

If David Lammy gets his way, more people will be banged up for simply expressing their right to free speech.

✍️ Sign below 👇

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

The Metropolitan Police have abandoned impartiality in favour of progressive and contested ideologies.

Former elected Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, Rick Prior, was unlawfully sacked by the Police Federation of England and Wales after saying in a GB News interview that rank-and-file officers were concerned about vexatious racism complaints being made against them simply for doing their jobs.

Rick was later brought into the Met Police’s policy unit and tasked with drafting new Diversity, Equality and Inclusion guidelines — only to have his recommendations ignored.

Watch Rick speak with FSU Director of Policy and Research @DavidRoseUK on the FSU Podcast 👇

[Karl Turner MP @KarlTurnerMP]

This is a mistake. It’s a flawed Bill. The whips ought not to be pushing this. If the government wants this in legislation it needs to be in a manifesto so that the electorate, which is just as divided on the issue, as Parliament have a say. It will of course be blocked again.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

“It’s going to cause unnecessary conflict if the police enforce the law.”

Rick Prior was sacked as elected chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation after saying on GB News that the officers he represented were concerned about vexatious racism complaints for simply doing their jobs.

In an effort to avoid appearing “institutionally racist”, police forces have swung so far in the opposite direction that they now discriminate against white people — particularly white working-class men.

With the support of the Free Speech Union, the High Court later found that Mr Prior had been unlawfully treated by the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW).

The Metropolitan Police subsequently asked him to draft new DEI guidelines — only to ignore them.

Rick has also written the foreword to the FSU’s new briefing, Fear and Favour: Britain’s Policing Emergency.

Policing in Britain has gone woke — and the consequences are proving fatal.

Watch the FSU Director of Policy and Research @DavidRoseUK and Rick Prior on the FSU Podcast below and read our new briefing 👇

[Nicole Lampert @nicolelampert]

This is our own mayor inciting hatred.

[Andrew Montford @aDissentient]

Net Zero is eating everything - economy, defence, grid security, food security. @TiceRichard @ClaireCoutinho

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

“I’d gone through this London Police Race Action Plan and I just couldn’t believe what I was reading.”

On this week’s episode of the FSU Podcast, Policy and Research Director @DavidRoseUK sits down with former chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, Rick Prior.

Rick was dismissed from his role after saying in a GB News interview that rank-and-file officers were concerned about vexatious allegations of racism.

In the wake of the tragic murder of Henry Nowak, serious questions have been raised about both the policies governing our police and the culture within them — and the consequences that follow.

In an attempt to avoid appearing “institutionally racist”, the police have swung so far in the opposite direction that they now discriminate against white people, particularly white working-class men.

Rick reflects on his experience as a police officer, his time as chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, and his work in the Met Police’s Culture, Diversity and Inclusion department.

The police have gone woke — and the consequences are proving fatal.

Watch the FSU Podcast below 👇

[David Rose @DavidRoseUK]

Henry Nowak’s appalling treatment was a death foretold, the consequence of disastrous and divisive policing policy that meant the officers who attended him believed his killer’s lies - as our new @SpeechUnion podcast explains https://t.co/zywcot5vB3

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

In the wake of Henry Nowak’s brutal murder, the FSU has published a new briefing: Fear and Favour: Britain’s Policing Emergency.

Britain’s policing culture has made a false accusation of racism the most powerful card a guilty man can play — the result of policy that has worsened over the past 30 years.

This briefing reveals:

• Why Henry Nowak’s killer reached for the race card — and why it worked.
• How a doctrine that rejects equal treatment under the law has come to shape modern policing.
• How the Met rejected a free speech and impartiality policy, only to embrace one that described impartiality as a racial myth.
• How the Free Speech Union foresaw these developments — and their likely consequences — in 2022, but was ignored.

Watch FSU Director of Policy and Research @DavidRoseUK 👇

[Karl Turner MP @KarlTurnerMP]

1/ @CommonsJustice report on @DavidLammy's jury trials plan is a devastating indictment of everything I've been saying. These are the biggest changes in 50 years, but there's been too little scrutiny, too little evidence, and too little thought given to the consequences. 🧵

[Joanna Hardy-Susskind @Joanna__Hardy]

David Lammy’s proposals to restrict the right to jury trial have been examined by the Justice Committee of the House of Commons.

And. Well. Um.

It’s *quite* the report.

I think it’s actually worse than politely scathing.

It’s embarrassing 👇🏼🪡🧵

[David Rose @DavidRoseUK]

@iamfaisee Nothing to do with me, pal. And since you seem to like antisemitic abuse, I’m blocking you.

[Gabriel Pogrund @Gabriel_Pogrund]

A more technical summary from Alex Wilson, partner at RPC, as to how Charlie Elphicke — the criminal who sued us for correctly reporting he was under investigation for sexual offences and is an alleged rapist — used every means possible to avoid paying legal costs to the Sunday Times — which paid >£500,000 to defend its public interest reporting.

[Claire Coutinho @ClaireCoutinho]

I’m starting to worry that the Labour Energy team can’t read.

This is not a report about jobs that only exist because of Net Zero.

A sizeable chunk of the jobs included are ‘waste and recycling’ and nuclear power. To state the obvious, we had those before Net Zero.

They aren’t explicit, but they appear to also include burning trees at Drax, which nobody thinks is green but which our Net Zero legislation forces us to do.

It also includes water monitoring and soil restoration - again, nothing to do with Net Zero.

It includes jobs which are not strictly a result of Net Zero, but ‘are not in conflict with it’ - for example, solar panels on roofs, or engineering consultancies. But again, there is no evidence that these jobs would not exist regardless. China, the world’s largest polluter, and the US, which doesn’t have a net zero target, have an abundance of clean tech jobs.

The problem is not clean tech, it is legislation which forces you to pick decarbonisation *when it does not work for the economy or living standards*.

If industries are paid through extremely expensive subsidies on everyone’s energy bills, of course they will be raising private capital - it’s a rent seekers’ paradise - but is that positive for the economy overall?

This is almost as bad as their ‘independent evidence’ that Clean Power 2030 would cut bills, which also turned out to be pure garbage.

For all of those repeating the Labour lines, please at least do the basics of reading the report.