Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for coming. It’s a privilege to speak here today.
Nick kindly gave me carte blanche to talk about anything. That sounds easy in theory, but with so much going on, it was difficult to decide what to say. So I asked myself—what would you want to hear? What brings 250 people into this room?
I believe we’re here because we share a certain set of values:
We care about our families and want prosperity for our children.
We care about our neighbours and want to live in a safe, law-abiding community.
We care about our country and want to defend British values.
But all of that means nothing if we do not have the freedom to express ourselves. Free expression is the cornerstone of any democratic society, but I believe it is increasingly under threat. It must be defended—without exception—unless it involves genuine threats, harassment, or incitements to violence.
Of course, governments have been suppressing free speech since the beginning of time. But today we live in an era where activists are obsessed with finding new ways to be offended, and the demand not to offend anyone is eclipsing legitimate criticism and debate.
If we don’t have free speech, we don’t have a free country. It’s as simple as that.
Trans Ideology and Compelled Speech
One of the most alarming paradoxes of today is that as free speech erodes, compelled speech is expanding. A prime example: the delusion among so-called “trans rights activists” that biological men can become women.
Let me give you a brief timeline.
In 2004, a European Court ruling led to the Gender Recognition Act, allowing people to legally change gender with approval from an official panel. In 2016, the Government proposed changing this to a self-ID model. After backlash, the plan was dropped. This was a turning point: many women decided enough was enough and began speaking out.
But the cost for speaking up? Cancellation, abuse, and threats from trans activists.
Women were forced out of the Labour Party for objecting when a teenage boy, Lily Madigan, stood for Women’s Officer. Maya Forstater lost her job after tweeting that male people are not women.
Public bodies like universities and the NHS have been complicit in enabling this totalitarian scope creep.
The University of Hull revisited plans to name a lecture theatre after Dame Jenni Murray because she wrote, “Be trans, be proud — but don’t call yourself a ‘real woman’.” Sussex University allowed a campaign of harassment against Professor Kathleen Stock for asserting that biological sex is real. She eventually resigned.
NHS institutions are no better. In 2023, Lewisham and Greenwich Trust required staff to apologise for mistakes in pronoun use. Darlington Hospital dismissed concerns raised by female nurses who had to share changing rooms with a male colleague identifying as female. The Trust told the women to “broaden their mindset” and “attend training”—the man’s identity was protected in court, while the women faced repercussions.
Similar things happened in NHS Fife, where a nurse was suspended after questioning why a man was changing in the women’s room. She was even asked to refer to him as “she” during tribunal proceedings. The trust tried to keep the case private and block media reporting.
What is going on when our NHS attempts to compel nurses to say things that contradict biological reality, and then silence their legitimate concerns?
Public and private institutions have been infiltrated by highly organised lobby groups like Stonewall, who’ve legitimised themselves through partnerships with public bodies. These trans ideologues don’t see the irony of demanding silence from women in the name of “inclusion.”
They scream “silence is violence” while silencing women. Until the rights of women are recognised as taking precedence over men who reject biological truth, women will continue to live in fear—afraid to speak out.
Blasphemy by the Back Door
Many of you will know the name Salman Rushdie. His 1988 book The Satanic Verses led to a fatwa by Iran’s supreme leader, calling for Rushdie’s execution and that of his publishers. This ignited debate on free speech versus religious offense.
But today, offending Islam carries even greater risk.
In 2015, terrorists murdered 12 people at Charlie Hebdo for publishing cartoons of Muhammad. In 2020, teacher Samuel Paty was falsely accused of showing obscene images of Muhammad during a lesson on free speech. A week later, he was beheaded in the street.
In 2023, anti-Islam protester Salwan Momika burned the Quran outside Stockholm Central Mosque. In January this year, he was executed for doing so.
We repealed our own blasphemy law in 2008—but it is returning under the guise of hate crime and public order legislation.
The Batley Grammar School teacher who showed a cartoon of Muhammad is still in hiding, four years after mobs targeted the school. In Wakefield, four students were suspended after one accidentally dropped a Quran. One received death threats and police protection. Instead of defending the child, the police recorded a hate incident against him.
I will never forget the image of that boy’s mother, headscarfed, at a community meeting that resembled a Sharia tribunal. That her son had to apologise shows our dangerous capitulation to religious intimidation.
Last month, a man burned a Quran in protest outside the Turkish embassy in London. He was charged with “harassment, alarm or distress” against the religion of Islam.
A man, in Britain, charged with an offence against a religion. Let that sink in.
The law should protect individuals—not ideologies. No religion, prophet, or belief system should be above criticism. Offended feelings should not carry more weight than the right to free expression.
The Government plans to create a new council to define “Islamophobia”—a move criticised by Muslim leaders like Dr Taj Hargey, who warned it would be weaponised by radicals to bring back blasphemy laws through the back door.
And no—we won’t be seeing a film called The Life of Mohammed any time soon.
Government Overreach and Surveillance
Even if the Islamophobia council never materialises, there’s no shortage of authoritarian overreach to contend with.
Last month, the Home Office used existing laws to demand Apple create a backdoor to view users’ encrypted files—files even Apple couldn’t access. Apple caved. Encryption has now been removed in the UK, putting users’ privacy and security at risk.
And let’s not forget: the Ministry of Defence lost 267 phones in just six weeks this year.
Non-Crime Hate Incidents
Then there’s the “Non-Crime Hate Incident”—an Orwellian policing tool allowing officers to record acts of speech that are not criminal but are perceived to be hostile.
The key word is “perceived.” No evidence is required. Victims need not justify their belief, and police are told not to challenge it.
This has led to some absurd situations:
Former policeman Harry Miller was investigated for tweeting that he was “born mammal” and identified as “fish.”
A man asked a Chinese takeaway if their food came “with bats.”
A pub landlord who ejected two people having sex in the toilets was accused of a hate incident—because one identified as transgender.
And here in Norfolk, someone calling a Welshman a “sheepshagger” was recorded as committing a hate incident.
Conclusion
Last month at the Munich Security Conference, JD Vance said:
“Freedom of speech goes to the heart of what we are as a society. We are talking a lot about what we need to defend ourselves from, but we don’t seem to be clear about what we are defending ourselves for.”
He also said democracy won’t survive if it refuses to listen to the citizens it’s supposed to serve.
He’s right. But the US cavalry isn’t coming to save us. We must save ourselves.
We must be bold.
It’s taken 30 years of culture warriors burrowing into our institutions to reach this point. The only way to reverse it is a controlled demolition of the state bureaucracy that is violating our liberties and silencing our voices.
We should:
Repeal the Human Rights Act
Withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights
Take power away from unelected lawyers and give it back to accountable Parliamentarians
Defund the BBC
Eliminate DEI roles from public institutions
Stop funding quangos and think tanks poisoning our public services
Sack the “wokerati” and stop the state-sponsored brainwashing of our children
Just two weeks ago, Keir Starmer said that Reform UK is not the answer for Britain. What he really meant is we are not the answer.
Well, all of us here tonight know—we ARE the answer!
So let us stand together.
Let us stand in the by-elections—and win.
Let us stand in the local elections—and win.
Let us stand in the general election—and WE WILL WIN!
If we want prosperity for our families and a better future for our communities,
Let us stand together.
Let us make—
Britain! Great!! Again!!!
