What does free speech actually mean? Toby Young & Mark Littlewood In Conversation

What is the current state of free speech in the UK? What does free speech actually mean? And what does Toby Young's, recently launched, Free Speech Union aim to achieve?

In this week's edition of In Conversation, the IEA's Director General Mark Littlewood interviews Toby Young, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, to discuss and understand why the union was started, what free speech crisis do we face across the western world, and how the union aims to support and defend its members – and the right of free speech as a whole.

Toby Young is Director of the Free Speech Union, an Associate Editor at The Spectator and the Associate Editor at Quillette.

To find out more about the FSU, go to:

[barrypaterson]

Joined the FSU today. Our country needs the FSU.

[johnreid]

Free speech cutting both ways
What if things that aren’t released to the public, when it’s in public interest but are covered up, like the grooming gang inquiry

[louislemar]

Whilst I agree with most of the points discussed in this video, I do take issue with Toby Young's comments that Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are part of "the public square." This is self-evidently absurd. These are private companies that host millions of people on their platforms. These are not Government produced services, these are not government-managed platforms - as if the Government could ever create Twitter or Youtube! - no, these are services created, managed, administered and legally owned by private entities. Something doesn't magically become "public" because many people use it. Many people shop at Tesco, or MacDonalds, that doesn't make them public.