Free Speech Union International: who are they?
"Every voice, no matter how controversial, has the right to be heard without fear."
No-one can argue with that. Founded in 2024, the opening statement on the Free Speech Union International's (FSUI) website continues....
The Free Speech Union International (FSU International) came into being in early 2025 to coordinate activities between the Free Speech Unions in the UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand, as well as help new FSUs get set up in other countries. In addition, FSU International defends free speech in international bodies, such as the UN. (my emphasis)
(The UN you say? Really...)
The original 'arm' of the Free Speech Union (FSU) has grown fast and globally since founder Toby Young set up the company (NOT a charity) in November 2019 (interesting date). The FSU Intl is also a company registered in the UK with Toby Young being named as the person with significant control. Young now sits in the House of Lords and FSU 'personalities' such as one of its Directors Douglas Murray, regularly feature in legacy media. So, is an entity claiming to promote free speech actually part of what David A Hughes defines as Camp 2? That is, not an authentic freedom-fighter? Let's dig...
During an excruciatingly awkward interview last week by DocMalik, Delingpole appalled the audience and doubled-down on his 'pride' at some disgusting writing about his sexual fantasies. For details you can watch a clip and read this by Aisling O'Loughlin. Delingpole was also trying unsuccessfully to defend his establishment mate 'Tobes' from scrutiny as his name is identified within the Epstein Files. If you can face it, the whole podcast is here (Part 2 paywalled):
Doc Malik
None of this is surprising, because of the long history of links between Delingpole and Young. But what is perhaps not so widely known in the 'Freedom Movement' is how Delingpole (like Murray) is not censored and deplatformed, on the contrary, he is still a regular contributor (archived) to legacy media such as The Spectator where Young is Associate Editor. (BTW Delingpole's wife is an editor for upper-class-coffee-table-magazines like Country Life.) Yes, it's a big club and we're not in it! But where does the financial support for these 'celebrity clubs' really come from?
Free Speech without Transparency?
Ironically, the same week, after an apparent breach of their online security, the FSU had filed an emergency court injunction to try to prevent full transparency about its funders (58secs):
House of Lords|4 Feb 2026
ā geofio (@GeoFio8) February 5, 2026
š„video editor @biologyphenom
āŖļøOral questions: Level of transparency required for the funding of think tanks, including in relation to funding from abroad.
āŖļøSome days ago the Free Speech Union took out and emergency injunction to PREVENT theā¦ pic.twitter.com/rYLaeWIg5q
And Peter Geoghegan and Max Colbert of Democracy for Sale have written a brief summary of reasons for that injunction and the outcome (link below). This includes mention of one of the FSU's significant donors, also an important UK UniParty-supporting entity I have researched in-depth with Michael Ginsburg of ActionableTruth Media - namely the Dubai-based impact investment bank Legatum:
Peter Geoghegan
For interest, my summary article that consolidates that Legatum research, including podcasts, with an explanatory diagram, is here:
Ursula Edgington
Despite FSU Intl being a registered company, donations are sought online as if it claims charitable status, and collected by an agency 'Enthuse' - a UK-based 2012 start-up designed to help small charities process online payments with tax relief. This reminds me of my research of the pseudo-charity that Dr Aseem Malhotra was appointed to - Davos-founded Abraham House (AH) as I wrote about here: Has Dr Aseem Malhotra turned into Dorian Gray? At the time, AH used a different but similar small-scale Welsh agency to process donations. Does this approach seem strange, given the size of the FSU's reach internationally, and its wealthy patrons? Who are the senior people at FSU Intl and who funds them?
The People Leading FSU Intl
The CEO of FSU International is Jon Benjamin, another establishment individual with a long history of diplomatic roles in UK Government and beyond. But in 2024 he was 'let go' from his role as British Ambassador to Mexico when he allegedly pointed an assault rifle ('in jest'?!) at a Government employee.
Benjamin seems a strange appointment for a 'free speech' entity, but many people are beginning to realise that Toby Young's project isn't quite what it says on the tin.
Alongside Lord Young of Acton aka 'Tobes' (more on him in a moment) another International Director is Roderick Mulgan, a current Medical Council of NZ registered doctor (since 2004) and also a NZ Law Society registered lawyer (since 2009). I don't know what Mulgan's view on the covid era is, but just to remind my readers that both these 'professional' entities played a major role in the implementation of the 'No Jab, No Job' policies in NZ. It is therefore possible that Mr Mulgan would have complied with and enforced the illegal 'Vaccination Order' within his own networks and numerous companies, which interestingly includes nutritional supplements firm Lifeguard.
If you want to understand more about the Law Society and Medical Council's roles during the covid era and beyond, and the conflicts of interest that surround them, I'd suggest you read my previous articles starting with these four:
Ursula Edgington
Ursula Edgington
Ursula Edgington
Ursula Edgington
Returning to the International Directors alongside Toby Young, Sara Gon is a musician and another lawyer, based in South Africa. Coincidentally, she also has a link to Jeremy Nell aka Jerm Warfare. The 'anti-apartheid think tank' (as it describes itself) 'The Institute of Race Relations (IRR)' is where Sara Gon is 'Head of Strategic Engagement', editing and contributing to its Daily Friend online magazine, where Jerm was a controversial cartoonist until 2021. The IRR is a non-profit and its funders page needs an update because recent FinTech mergers and acquisitions have changed many of these names. But among its funders are listed: investment bank Inspira (Previously Millennium Trust), SA multi-millionnaire Paul Theron of asset manager Vestact and Lombard Insurance, acquired in 2024 by life insurance giant Utmost International.
Social equality must be profitable, eh, because the IRR (like the FSU) is a powerful lobby group.
Co-Director of FSU Intl is Reuben Kirkham - an academic who was previously at Monash University and published articles about data protection policies in the public sector. After he was fired, he attempted to obtain compensation from his previous employer, but appeared to misunderstand employment law when he represented himself, and lost the case. His 173-page was described by the Court as a "rant based on seeking revenge" and "bereft of any particularisation of factual allegationsā. Oh dear, hardly a great case study for FSU members then?
Toby Young and the FSU
I wrote about the FSU in NZ when Toby Young graced New Zealand with his presence back in 2024. I included his Friends of Israel connections with Parliament in this piece too. The event I attended was painful in many ways, not least because when I asked him, Young seemed to have no genuine knowledge about (nor any care for) academic freedom in NZ. I wondered at the time what this was really all about. It's worth reviewing this in light of recent events and plans for expansion:
Ursula Edgington
Membership of the FSU UK ranges from GBP60 to GBP250 per annum. In NZ membership is $200 per annum and there is evidence of its current lobbying power with our Government. Censorship is intensifying everyday - online and IRL - and NZ workplaces in particular are toxic spaces. It's not surprising that employees in different sectors are joining the FSU with the reasonable expectation of being fairly represented in court, if that became a requirement. But beware!
As many people have discovered, whatever country you are in where the FSU has a presence, your own innocent fight for Free Speech will not necessarily fit the criteria for support from the FSU. For example, here's DocMalik explaining his particular rejection experience (2 mins):
Doc Malik
Last words...
Now that we can see what Lord Toby Young of Acton's Free Speech Union really is, what funds it and who runs it, will its global plans for expansion stop? Will the public begin to see that the FSU is just another 'holding pen' in the Camp 2 of Awareness? Who still believes the delusion that privileged, establishment figures like Toby Young, Douglas Murray, James Delingpole and all the others like them, will actually provide some solutions to this tyrannical era? Wake up folks! Our power is within us. Vote with your feet - cancel memberships and subscriptions to all these inauthentic bad actors. We do not need these people.
PS Have you had any experiences with the FSU where you live? Good or bad, let me know below!