Today’s Update

Free Speech Union Helping 71 Year-Old ‘Thought Criminal’ Arrested by Kent Police and Held in Cell For Eight Hours

By Toby Young

A retired Special Constable who was arrested and held in a cell for eight hours for a social media post is to sue Kent Police with the help of the Free Speech Union.

The story of Julian Foulkes’ ordeal was published in today’s Telegraph:

Julian Foulkes, from Gillingham in Kent, was handcuffed at his home by six officers from Kent Police – the force he had served for a decade – after challenging a supporter of pro-Palestinian marches on X.

Police body-worn camera footage captured officers scrutinising the 71-year-old’s collection of books by authors such as Douglas Murray, a Telegraph contributor, and issues of The Spectator, pointing to what they described as “very Brexity things”.

They were also shown raising concerns about a shopping list containing bleach, tin foil and gloves drawn up by Mr Foulkes’s wife, a hairdresser.

“Free speech is clearly under attack,” said Mr Foulkes. “Nobody is really safe… the public needs to see what’s happening, and be shocked.”

His case is the latest in a string of heavy-handed police responses to lawful expression. Last year, the Telegraph revealed that its columnist Allison Pearson was questioned at home by two officers over an X post following pro-Palestinian protests.

Mr Foulkes’s house was searched, with officers seizing his electronic devices and removing them to a waiting police van. Officers also rifled through his most personal belongings. Fifteen years ago, his daughter Francesca was killed by a drunk driver in a hit-and-run while on holiday in Ibiza.

On the footage, one officer can be heard saying, “Ah. That’s sad,” as she examined newspaper clippings Mr Foulkes had kept about the police investigation and the funeral.

After his home was searched, the retired special constable was locked in a police cell for eight hours and interrogated on suspicion of malicious communications. Fearing that further escalation could impact his ability to visit his surviving daughter, who lives in Australia, he accepted a caution despite having committed no offence.

The incident took place in November 2023. This week, Kent Police admitted the caution was a mistake and deleted it from Mr Foulkes’s record.

In March, officers from Hertfordshire Constabulary arrested and detained the parents of a nine-year-old girl after they had complained about her school in a WhatsApp group, before concluding that no further action was required.

Ian Austin, a Labour MP, has also been investigated for calling Hamas “Islamist”, while Julie Bindel, the feminist writer, was visited by police after a transgender man reported her gender-critical tweets as an alleged “hate crime”.

On Saturday, a Kent Police spokesman told The Telegraph the force had “concluded that the caution against Mr Foulkes was not appropriate in the circumstances and should not have been issued”.

The spokesman said “Kent Police expunged the caution from the man’s record and was pleased to facilitate this correction”, adding that a further review of the matter would now be carried out “to identify any learning opportunities”.

Julian has since joined the Free Speech Union, which is now helping him. As it says on the crowdfunder it has set up to raise money to help with his legal expenses:

We don’t think Kent Police should be allowed to get away with such appalling behaviour. At one point, a police officer searching his home pointed to books by Douglas Murray and copies of the Spectator and described them as “very Brexity things”, as though that in itself was suspicious.

The emotional fallout has been devastating. Julian lost one of his daughters in a hit-and-run 15 years ago and his surviving daughter now lives in Australia. His greatest fear was that a criminal record might prevent him from visiting her — which is why, despite having done nothing wrong, he felt compelled to accept a caution. “My life wouldn’t be worth living if I couldn’t see her,” he said.

With the FSU’s help, Julian is going to sue the force for wrongful arrest, as well as unlawful interference in his right to liberty. After the ordeal he was put through, he deserves to be given a substantial sum in compensation. Please donate to his crowdfunder so he can get the justice he deserves.

Stop Press: The Mail has written about the case, which includes the following quote from me:

The police have allowed themselves to become the paramilitary wing of the BBC.

If you’re a progressive liberal activist, particularly if you work in the public sector, the way to silence a pesky gadfly on social media is to report them to the police for ‘harassment’ or ‘causing offence’ or ‘hate speech’.

The boys in blue will be down on them like a ton of bricks and after they discover that no crime has been committed – because challenging Left-wing group think isn’t actually against the law, at least not yet – they will dutifully record the episode as a ‘non-crime hate incident’.

Meanwhile, shoplifters and mobile phone thieves run riot.

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press 2: The Telegraph has published a follow-up piece about the FSU helping Julian Foulkes sue Kent Police for wrongful arrest.

Britain Faces Months-Long Blackouts Because of Net Zero

By Richard Eldred

Britain’s rush to Net Zero could leave it vulnerable to months-long blackouts, as reliance on intermittent renewables strains the grid, escalating costs and jeopardising energy security. The Telegraph has more.

The grid operator has raised concerns that the switch from dependable gas to intermittent wind and solar power would “reduce network stability” and said the cost to taxpayers of funding measures to prevent the system crashing was set to “increase significantly” to £1 billion a year.

Meanwhile, the global energy watchdog has sounded the alarm over the “premature retirement” of gas power plants “without adequate replacements”.

It can also be revealed that Government officials have admitted it would take Britain “several months” to fully recover from a nationwide electricity outage.

Spain and Portugal were hit by huge power cuts last month, which experts have said were likely to have been caused by their reliance on renewable energy. Ministers have played down the prospect of such a blackout happening in the UK, insisting Britain has a “highly resilient energy network”.

It comes after a power cut at Heathrow in March, which shut the airport for 24 hours, raised questions about the reliability of the electricity network.

The National System Energy Operator (Neso), which runs the grid, published a report in that same month, which warned of an increased risk of “outages”. It set out that the reduction in “synchronous” power generation, such as from gas and nuclear, in favour of renewables “reduces network stability”. …

In response, Britain is having to invest large amounts of cash in “stability network services”, such as mass battery storage, to back up the system. Neso said the cost of these would “increase significantly by 2030, up to an estimated £1 billion a year”, citing modelling by Imperial College London. …

A report compiled by the Cabinet Office earlier this year found that the risk of a nationwide blackout was “low”, but that the effects would be devastating.

Under such a scenario “all consumers without backup generators would lose their mains electricity supply instantaneously and without warning”. This would “cause significant and widespread disruption to public services provisions, businesses and households, as well as loss of life”.

The Government’s National Risk Register found that it would take “a few days” to get a “skeletal network” of power back up and running.

It added: “Full restoration could take up to seven days, however, depending on the cause of failure and damage, restoration of critical services may take several months.”

Worth reading in full.

The Backlash to the War Against Boys

By Noah Carl

When elites try to impose feminism on ordinary people, do they become more or less receptive to it?

In a 2022 paper, Brian Wheaton of UCLA found that they become much less receptive. He studied “Equal Rights Amendments”—changes to US state constitutions that explicitly mandate gender equality. Comparing changes in gender attitudes in states that did and didn’t pass such amendments, he found that Americans became less supportive of gender equality when such amendments were passed.

Most states that passed Equal Rights Amendments did so in the 1970s and 80s—so the backlash that Wheaton documented is kind of old news. However, the very same process may now be unfolding again.

In a recent article, David Waldron (a data analyst based in the US) reported some startling results from an analysis he did of Monitoring the Future—a survey of American 8th, 10th and 12th graders that has been going since 1975. Waldron’s key finding is shown below.

Support for gender equality among American boys. Source.

As you can see, the percentage of 8th and 10th grade boys (i.e., boys aged 13–16) who agree with two key statements of gender equality has fallen sharply since 2018. The percentage who agree that “a woman should have the same job opportunities as a man” has fallen by 12 percentage points, while the percentage who agree that “men and women should be paid the same money if they do the same work” has fallen by 8 percentage points. In both cases, the percentage who agree “completely” has fallen by an even greater amount.

American boys are now less supportive of gender equality than at any time since the early 1990s (when Waldron’s data begins).

Waldron tested whether social media, video games or social isolation could explain the result—but found that they couldn’t. The fall in support for gender equality was just as great among boys who spend little time on social media as among as those who spend a lot of time on social media. And it was actually greater among gamers and boys who regularly hang out with friends.

Lack of role models couldn’t explain the result either. The fall in support was equally great among boys with and without a father in the home, and was slightly greater among those with college-educated mothers. The only factor that did seem to matter was religion. The fall in support was substantially smaller (though still evident) among boys who say religion is not important in their life. Unfortunately, Waldron was unable to investigate this further due to lack of information in the survey.

In any case, the fact that social media, video games and social isolation didn’t make a difference is telling. It suggests the trend cannot be put down to the usual suspects of ‘online misogyny’ and ‘incel ideology’.

Rather, the most likely explanation is the demonisation of men and masculinity—what Christina Hoff Sommers has dubbed “the war against boys”. After decades in which boys’ problems were largely side-lined, their interests dismissed as ‘toxic masculinity’ and their successes chalked up to ‘privilege’, it seems the backlash is finally here.

Oxford Union Rejects Call to Fly LGBT Flag During Pride Month

By Richard Eldred

The Oxford Union has sparked student uproar after secretly voting down a motion to mandate flying the LGBT flag during every Pride month. The Telegraph has the story.

Anita Okunde, the president of the union, made the request after an order requiring the flag to be raised in June was mysteriously removed from the student-run standing committee’s rule book.

The order would make it compulsory for “every union president to fly an LGBT flag clearly and visibly from the courtyard throughout June every year”.

It would also give the president the discretion to waive the requirement “in the event of the death of the Sovereign, or at such other time when public buildings fly their flags at half mast”.

In minutes of the meeting, seen by the Telegraph, Ms Okunde claimed it was not “a new standing order change” and that it had been mysteriously removed from the committee’s rule book.

But her motion was rejected by a vote of seven to four in a secret ballot on May 5th, with critics fearing it would open a “Pandora’s box” of demands for other flags to be flown.

In a meeting at which opposition voices were cautious not to be cancelled, Samy Medjdoub, the third elected member of the committee from Keble College, said that by passing the motion any other individual may make the same request for any other cause and described the scenario as “opening the floodgates”. …

The ruling has ignited a fierce online backlash from students, with one writing that the change was “confirmation that the union is as bad as everyone thinks it is”.

Worth reading in full.

Miliband Plots Surge in Wind Farm Subsidies to Rescue Net Zero

By Richard Eldred

Ed Miliband is quietly plotting a massive wind farm subsidy surge that could send household energy bills soaring in a bid to salvage his Net Zero ambitions. The Telegraph has the story.

The Energy Secretary is preparing to ditch key limits on the cash diverted from bills to turbine developers, the Telegraph can reveal.

The manoeuvre, uncovered in official documents, is expected to allow Mr Miliband to bankroll thousands of extra turbines in the next few years.

He has pledged to make Britain’s electricity supply 95% carbon-free by that date. The target has been attacked as a “fantasy” by the Conservatives, partly because there are too few offshore wind projects in the pipeline.

That problem was exacerbated last week with Ørsted’s decision to abandon its massive Hornsea 4 scheme to build 180 giant turbines off Yorkshire, giving 2.4 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity – enough for 2.6 million homes on a windy day.

To accelerate wind farm construction, Mr Miliband wants to scrap limits on the total subsidy on offer to offshore developers in Whitehall auctions.

Instead a target would be set for the amount of electricity to be generated, with the cost to households only worked out afterwards.

A Whitehall insider agreed costs could rise initially, suggesting that the investment in renewables now would bring prices down in years to come.

“It means short-term pain in energy bills, for long-term gain,” he said.

The scheme was revealed in a paper from Mr Miliband’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). “In place of a budget, the Government would publish a capacity ambition,” it said.

Mr Miliband wants between 43GW and 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. Only 16GW is operational so far, with another 12.6GW in planning. That leaves a shortfall of about 15GW just to hit the minimum, which would broadly mean adding an extra 1,500 giant 10-megawatt turbines to the 1,500 already planned.

These must all be commissioned in the next couple of years to be working by 2030 – but developers are demanding extra subsidies to undertake the massive challenge.

Worth reading in full.

Danny Dyer Insists “Elitist” Critics Would Never Mock His Accent if He Was Black

By Richard Eldred

Rivals star Danny Dyer has taken aim at elitist critics who mock his working-class Cockney accent, arguing that racial double standards would prevent similar ridicule of a black actor. The Mail has the story.

The former EastEnders favourite reveals on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 today how one sneering review of his work was even written in a Cockney accent.

He says: “I felt like, ‘why would that be allowed?’ Because if I was a black actor you certainly wouldn’t do it in a Jamaican accent. I’ve had some awful reviews about me.”

The 47 year-old father of three from Custom House in London’s East End believes that coming from a working-class background has prevented him from being regarded as a serious actor.

“I think I’ve done some good work over the years but I’ve never really been acknowledged,” he says. “There’s a bit of elitism in our industry. I’m incredibly working-class and proud of my roots.

“I don’t work for critics in a sense, but the one that did do me was, ‘The biggest plot twist about Rivals is that Danny Dyer can act.’ And I thought, ‘wow.’ In a way it’s a compliment, but at the same time, not really.”

An early mentor to Dyer was the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, who took the then 22 year-old actor under his wing. Dyer appeared in three plays by the writer, who also had working-class East London origins.

Worth reading in full.

Declined: Chapter 18: The Unthinkable

By Molly Kingsley

This is the 18th chapter of a novel being published in serial form in the Daily Sceptic. It’s a dystopian satire about the emergence of a social credit system in the UK in the near future. Read previous chapters here.

Theo wolfed down breakfast, stood up, put his shoes on and, placing Libby’s letter, carefully folded, in his back pocket – he’d need the extra steel today, he was sure of that – opened his villa door. It was his 23rd day in the National Harmony Re-education Centre, and he was determined it would be his last.

In three days it would be Libby‘s birthday. Missing it wasn’t an option he would contemplate.

He turned right out of the bungalow and, with only one purpose in mind, followed signs to the ‘Reception Zone’. He was going to find the person in charge, speak to them, and demand – DEMAND – they release him.

Striding purposefully along the walkways, his eyes scanned the encampment. The bungalows spread as far as the eye could see. They were interspersed with waterways carving through the centre of the camp designed, he’d surmised only after a few days here, to keep guests away from the outer edges of the grounds.

How big was this place, he contemplated, his eyes resting on a row of high trees in the distance, beyond the villas. Was that the perimeter? The distance was significant – 750 metres? Perhaps more. Was it far fetched to suppose that he might actually need to escape?

He stopped his thoughts in their tracks.

Escape might yet prove too strong a word. After all, there remained a dimly receding chance that a dignified, drama-less exit might be within grasp, that this was all a big misunderstanding and….

A National Harmony Officer passed him, walking the ‘wrong’ way along the walkway. One way rules apply to us, Theo pointedly thought, not them. The guard nodded; Theo nodded back, waiting until he was safely past before looking again at the perimeter. Something glinted back at him from the distance. A fence? A wire?

A popping sound jolted him from behind. He looked around, eyes narrowing, but not detecting any obvious source, he carried on. As had so often been the case, he saw no one, and wondered, as he did every time he ventured out of his bungalow, at the kind of institution that could afford, need or want such a barely populated, vast enclosure.

For the umpteenth time he strained to visualise the letter notifying him of his detention. Why why why WHY hadn’t he thought to bring it with him? It was so unlike him to be so disorganised and he upbraided himself for such reprehensible rashness.

He thought back to the letter.

Twenty-one days it had said, he was sure of that. Twenty-one days in a Re-Education Facility. He could think of nothing indicating any possibility of extension. Surely not without some kind of process, surely not?

His eyes rested on something poking out from behind the rushes of the waterways. He slowed, looking more closely than usual. Buried almost out of sight beneath the overhang of the canal, there was a dark, cargo green box. It blended almost imperceptibly with the vegetation around it. Just visible poking out from its upper surface, a red light, like an emergency services siren.

His heart pumped faster and he quickened his pace.

After what seemed like a small age, but was in fact a further 11 minutes, he was at the Reception Zone, a gated area with an imposing horizontal black-and-white building at its centre that was almost offensively incongruous with the gentle greens and greys of the surrounding fenland. Signage over the building read:

WELCOME TO THE EAST OF ENGLAND NATIONAL HARMONY RE-EDUCATION CENTRE

REHARMONISING THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

Visits to the Reception Zone were discouraged and, other than on checking in on the first morning, he’d been there only twice before. Once when they hadn’t served him dinner — “we can only apologise, Sir, our mistake, we’ll serve you a double portion of desert”; and once when he’d ventured over to flag that his laptop hadn’t been returned after the previous morning’s sweep, following which the lady in the red trouser suit had mysteriously appeared delivering it back. He felt an untimely and inconvenient pang remembering quite how attractive he’d found her to be.

He approached the gate, cautiously, noticing as he passed a sign that read:

BEWARE!!!! POLICE GUARD-DOGS PATROL THIS AREA

He paused, feeling like he hadn’t seen it before and, his palms sweating, wondering why not.

Reaching the buzzer at the gate he took a long, deep breath, and pressed it, firmly. For comfort, he felt again the letter to Libby in his back pocket. “Don’t take no for an answer, Dad!!”, Libby‘s voice echoed back.

A stern sounding male voice emanated over the intercom.

“Good morning. How may we help you?”

Theo lent into the machine.

“Oh. Hi. It’s Theo Oberman from Bungalow 592. I would like to speak to you about leaving, please.”

There was a long pause. A camera overhead shifted its focus to point directly down at him. He felt his face turn red and hot, and a single bead of sweat formed below his hairline. He resisted the urge to wipe it away, not wanting the sensors to detect his anxiety.

The voice spoke again.

“Of course. Do come in.”

The gate opened.

Taking possibly the deepest breath of his life, he headed inside, marvelling at how much it resembled a second-rate, slightly jaded, airport hotel. A sign over the front desk read:

Always here to serve your needs

Words which apparently were not to be taken literally, as there was not a person in sight.

Looking around, he wondered if he’d been conned, if it was all some awful trap.

“Excuse me, Sir,” a low voice rose from behind him. “I’m so sorry you’ve had to wait, I was just making myself a cuppa.”

A plain looking gentlemen, grey hair, dungaree style trousers, walked by the side of him holding a cup of tea. He smiled at Theo, and gesticulated to the nearest booth.

“Please. Have a seat. How can I help?”

Theo, willing his hands to stop shaking, said, “I would like to go home. I don’t believe you have grounds to keep me here.”

The officer looked at him for a moment, as if working out how best to respond.

“Could you remind me of your name please?”

“Yes, of course. It’s Theo Oberman.”

The officer turned to his screen. Before he could check Theo’s record, Theo interjected —

“I failed the Harmony exam a couple of days ago. I assume that’s why I’m here. But there was nothing in any paperwork about any further period of detention, and as a matter of law —“

“Ahhh. Mr Oberman,” the officer interrupted, scrolling down the screen and then looking back up towards Theo.

“Of course. I recognise you now,” the officer said, leaning into Theo and with eyes opening wide. And then, adopting an altogether more conspirational tone, “I must say, I used to be rather a fan of your articles. Yes, brilliant. I read your columns every week. Terribly sorry to see the paper let you go,” and then shaking his head for emphasis, “Terribly sorry.”

“Now, let me just check what your records say. Oh yes, sir, I can see here. You did fail your exam, although looking at this,” he squinted into the screen, “only by three marks. And yes, of course you’re very right, we can’t keep you here, oh no, there would need to be a justice hearing for that. It looks like there’s been a mix-up, you were meant to be released yesterday and then asked to apply for a re-sit, but that seems not to have happened. I can only offer my sincerest apologies for the inconvenience, Mr Oberman.”

Theo looked at him in astonishment.

“Please Mr Oberman. If you head back to your room and pack your bags, we’ll send a buggy round to collect you. You’ll be out of here in no time and back with your family. Definitely in time to make your daughter‘s birthday,” he smiled.

He stood up and, putting a friendly hand on Theo‘s back, gently escorted him out. “I assume it won’t take you long to pack up?” he said. “If I arrange for a buggy in 30 minutes, will that work for you?”

Theo nodded, speechless. It seemed almost impossible that it could be this straightforward, but…

“Would you like an escort back to your bungalow?” he asked.

Theo looked, alarmed.

“No, that won’t be necessary. I like the walking. Thanks though.”

“Of course, Sir, nice to enjoy the scenery one last time.”

Without pausing to look back, Theo stood up and let the officer buzz him out of the Reception Zone. As soon as he was safely clear of the gates his pace quickened to a near jog. He looked back around him, half expecting to be tracked, or chased.

But there was no one. The place was as empty as it had been a few moments ago, and the surrounding fenlands were silent and eerily still.

He looked again at the surroundings. Thirty minutes, and he’d be on his way out of here. Thirty minutes and he’d be back on his way to them. Thirty minutes and this nightmare would – at least for now – be in the past.

Arriving back at his bungalow he took out of his key card, went into his room, looked around, and almost ecstatic, mouthed goodbye. His mind started to turn to what he’d say to the kids, to Ella, how they’d need to start afresh, with energy and urgency, their search for a new life abroad. He took the letter from Libby out from his back pocket and kissed it – thank God thank God thank God thank God THANK GOD.  He’d be free to give it to her in person, now.

And it was then, staring at the letter from Libby, seeing her carefully hand-drawn signature and with his mind turning to her birthday on Friday that, with a cold, sharp start, he realised that he’d never actually told the officer when Libby‘s birthday was.

Momentarily he froze, then scurried with the haste of a rat escaping a sinking ship to throw the last of his possessions into his bag – laptop, toothbrush, wash-bag – and involuntarily, out of 40 years impeccable ‘last day of holiday habit’, scanned the room for one final check, and turned to leave —

— and it was then that the room filled with a clashing, crushing bang; the unmistakable clanging of metal on metal.

Doing a 180 degree he sprung to the door to pull down the handle, a caged animal clawing to get out, realising with a crushing certainty, even before he’d tried, that it would be to no avail. It didn’t budge. He pulled and pulled and pulled and then banged desperately, at first shouting and then screaming “LET ME OUT”, “LET ME OUT”, but understanding there would be no one there to meet his call. He was unable to sit, unable to stand, unable to do anything, save stay frozen to the spot, time reversing and temples pounding so hard he thought his skull might split, only interrupted after a minute or two – he couldn’t say how long – by a rustling sound from near the door.

As he looked, an envelope appeared beneath the door.

He ran up to the door again. Banged again. Shouted again. Nothing. He picked up the envelope – it was addressed to him – and opening it, read furiously:

Mr Theo Overman,

NOTICE OF FURTHER DETENTION

This is hereby to inform you that the Senior National Harmony Officer for the East of England Facility, acting in their sole discretion, has determined that you meet the criteria necessary to be accommodated in this re-education facility until such time as the National Harmony Re-Education programme has been fully and finally completed to the satisfaction of the Senior Officer acting in their sole and exclusive discretion.

Then, an official, circular stamp, bearing the words:

LEAVE TO APPEAL DECLINED

More to follow, once written! Meantime feedback appreciated in the comments section below. Thank you.

Molly Kingsley is a freelance journalist, lawyer and founder of parent campaign group UsForThem.

News Round-Up

By Richard Eldred

https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1921568553553240099

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