Read more:
@TheFreeSpeechUnion :
https://freespeechunion.org/fsu-member-suspended-by-waitrose-for-tweeting-conservative-views/
Ben's Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/defend-my-right-to-freedom-of/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14498263/Waitrose-faces-SACK-supermarket-tweets-cartoon-trans.html
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/17/why-is-waitrose-investigating-its-staff-for-thoughtcrime/
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https://linktr.ee/blackbeltbarrister
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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
I'm a Barrister of England and Wales.
Videos for educational guidance only, Always seek advice before taking action. Videos on my channel are not legal advice and should not be taken as such. I accept no liability for any reliance placed upon the content of these videos or references, therein. Description may contain affiliate or sponsored links, for which we may receive commissions or payment.
@TheFreeSpeechUnion :
https://freespeechunion.org/fsu-member-suspended-by-waitrose-for-tweeting-conservative-views/
Ben's Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/defend-my-right-to-freedom-of/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14498263/Waitrose-faces-SACK-supermarket-tweets-cartoon-trans.html
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/17/why-is-waitrose-investigating-its-staff-for-thoughtcrime/
Free £50, bonuses, and more:
https://share.octopus.energy/happy-human-326
https://linktr.ee/blackbeltbarrister
Become a Channel member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrmxzSIf7J66qvlOAT9AlZQ/join
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
I'm a Barrister of England and Wales.
Videos for educational guidance only, Always seek advice before taking action. Videos on my channel are not legal advice and should not be taken as such. I accept no liability for any reliance placed upon the content of these videos or references, therein. Description may contain affiliate or sponsored links, for which we may receive commissions or payment.
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NewsTranscript
00:00If you value your freedom and freedom of speech, I strongly urge you to watch this video in full.
00:06Because tomorrow it might be something that you do or say that you're being targeted for,
00:11and you would hope that someone will speak out for you.
00:14Because there's quite a controversial story that's popped up over the weekend,
00:19and that is between Waitrose and Ben Woods, known online as Ben on Wine.
00:25No rhyme intended, I promise you.
00:27Now, as soon as I say it, you possibly know the account on X,
00:31and you possibly know that he posts fairly controversial things.
00:36And most of you probably won't be surprised that Waitrose has decided to suspend him
00:40over his posts because they object to these posts, and indeed it's part of a contract.
00:47Now, I have an admission of my own here,
00:50because I did make a post about this and later deleted it
00:53because I thought it was posted in haste and a little bit too one-sided,
00:57which is not really me, so I decided to delete it and do this video instead.
01:01I'm big enough to admit if I've done something either wrong or in haste,
01:06but not for the reason that lots of the trolls seem to think it was,
01:08and that I've somehow misunderstood the law.
01:10Because a contract cannot, as a matter of law,
01:14completely override one's freedom of expression, because it's a protected human right.
01:19But that's not to say that there aren't problems in this case,
01:22because I can see it from Waitrose's point of view as well.
01:25So I'll try to be balanced in this video,
01:27because if I were an employer, I might object to those posts myself.
01:32And so whether or not that overrides the human rights element
01:36would be for a tribunal to decide, if it ever gets that far.
01:39Now, Ben is being supported by Free Speech Union here,
01:43and he has a crowdfunder running.
01:45Hundreds of people have donated to support Ben in his fight for free speech here.
01:49I believe it was first covered,
01:51or one of the first coverings of this was by the Daily Mail,
01:54and then it's been covered by Spiked Online.
01:56So I'll link those below and give you an idea of some of the posts
01:59that they're complaining about.
02:00One of them was this matte cartoon that Ben reposted that says,
02:05your son is falling behind in sex education.
02:07He could only name 47 of the 100 genders.
02:11Now, obviously, Ben has strong views about these things,
02:14strong conservative views in his own words,
02:17and he's posted a lot of conservative things.
02:20Another one he posted said,
02:22if a referendum was held tomorrow, would you vote to close the borders?
02:26Over 4,000 people voted and 98% said yes.
02:30He also criticised Angela Rayner's clothing.
02:33He also posted another one about that book that says,
02:38In My Daddy's Belly, the story of a transgender dad giving birth,
02:42which describes two dads eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child,
02:46and said that that was spreading misinformation.
02:48Now, you may hold views on that as well.
02:50So aside from some of them that you might object to that he's posted,
02:55you may agree with some of those posts.
02:57So what if we were to split those out,
02:59and you only posted the ones that you actually agree with,
03:02but you were disciplined and possibly suspended
03:04or sacked from your position for posting things that you agree with
03:08and you firmly believe in?
03:10Because you may not firmly believe in everything that Ben posts,
03:12but that's my point of this video.
03:15Where do we draw this line?
03:16Because I am stuck between a rock and a hard place,
03:19although I did make my post in haste
03:21because I felt that they were stamping on free speech
03:24in roughly the words that I used.
03:26But at the same time, I sort of retract a little and think,
03:30well, I can see it from Waitrose's point of view,
03:32because if I were the employer,
03:34I might be upset about someone posting things like that,
03:36certainly about the things that come very close
03:39to what I would consider really critical of religious values.
03:42As an employer, I would object to my employees posting things like that,
03:46but for some of them, I might not.
03:48So ask yourself which posts you would agree with
03:51and which posts you wouldn't agree with,
03:53and if there are some posts that you would agree with posting,
03:56how would you feel if you were targeted, suspended, and sacked
03:59and disciplined for posting those things that you genuinely believe in?
04:02Now, coming to the contract aspect,
04:05because it's been posted online somewhere that a snippet from the contract,
04:10I don't know if it's the same contract or what,
04:12but this is taken from a previous tribunal against John Lewis,
04:17which owns Waitrose, and it appears to be part of their social media policy,
04:23which I assume forms part of their contract.
04:25But as I say, as a matter of law,
04:27it cannot completely override your right to the freedom of expression,
04:31which is an Article 10 ECHR protected human right,
04:35which some people have pointed out as being ironic
04:37because Ben says we should get rid of ECHR.
04:40But that's not to say we should also get rid of the right to the freedom of expression.
04:43We have the freedom of expression anyway, regardless of ECHR.
04:48It just so happens that it is one of the articles that protects free speech.
04:52However, this social media policy here says,
04:55any partner who identifies themselves as an employee of John Lewis Partnership,
04:59who is known to be a partner,
05:00or who's connected through a social networking site to other partners
05:03or other suppliers or customers,
05:04must ensure that all content posted is consistent with this policy.
05:08The acceptable use policy and the internet security instructions.
05:12Partners must not post any information that could be considered bullying,
05:15harassing, discriminatory towards any individual or group of individuals.
05:19This includes derogatory or offensive comments relating to gender,
05:22sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, marital status, or religious belief.
05:27But that is where we have to draw a bit of a line,
05:30because they cannot, as a matter of law,
05:34say that you must not post anything that is in any way offensive
05:41regarding something that you fundamentally believe in.
05:44If it is a fundamental belief that you hold,
05:47and you are manifesting your belief within the law,
05:50this cannot override that right to do so,
05:54unless it crosses a line to be grossly offensive.
05:58In this particular case that I was quoting it from here,
06:00I believe it was very clear that it was grossly offensive what was posted,
06:04to the extent that I'm not going to repeat it here.
06:07And so in that case, clearly, it was held to be a fair dismissal,
06:12as against an unfair dismissal.
06:14So the claim by that individual failed.
06:16But this policy and the contract, etc.,
06:19cannot completely override the right to the freedom of expression.
06:23But this is a balancing act.
06:24And as I said, if it gets that far,
06:27it will be a tribunal to decide going through each of the tweets complained of.
06:31If in the event that Ben was fired and brought a claim for unfair dismissal,
06:34it will be for a tribunal to decide whether that was unfair or not.
06:38And this is where we come to Ben's crowdfunding here,
06:40because fighting these things can be very expensive.
06:44Fees for lawyers and barristers can be very expensive.
06:47And taking this to court obviously takes a toll on an individual.
06:50And so hundreds of people have supported this so far,
06:53raising over eight and a half thousand pounds.
06:55Ben had an initial target of £3,000 to go through his disciplinary proceedings,
07:00a stretch target currently set at £15,000.
07:03And so he hopes that will see him through this process to a conclusion.
07:06Moving back to the Free Speech Union, they told The Telegraph,
07:09our case and legal teams have been assisting Ben throughout this process.
07:13He's one of 260 ordinary people we're assisting right now
07:17who are being punished for their opinions.
07:19We've seen a spate of supermarket workers
07:21investigated and penalised for their lawful beliefs in recent months.
07:25Supermarkets have no business snooping on employees' lawful views.
07:29Now, some people have commented online that Ben did reference waitrose
07:33within some of his posts, but that's not necessarily unlawful either,
07:38depending on what they say and how it was put across.
07:41But at the same time, even if he was expressing his views,
07:44that could still be within the bounds of the law expressing his views lawfully.
07:49Now, again, I can see it from both sides.
07:51I can see that the employer would be upset that one of their employees
07:53is posting things that appear to be derogatory
07:55and perhaps bring them into disrepute,
07:57but that doesn't necessarily cross the line of being unlawful.
07:59So you can see the balancing act here.
08:01One of the things that's brought this to the forefront
08:03is people supporting Reform UK.
08:06Free Speech Union says that their intervention
08:08follows a pattern of employees being investigated or dismissed
08:11for expressing mainstream political views,
08:13including supporting Reform UK.
08:16Now, I've personally seen lots of cases
08:18where people have been suspended or dismissed from their work
08:22because they've been supporting Reform.
08:24Free Speech Union says they're also supporting Sabah Pursidi, a father of two,
08:28who's suing one of Britain's largest housing associations
08:30for political discrimination after being sacked
08:32as a resident involvement officer.
08:34Hightown Housing Association justified his dismissal
08:36by claiming that Reform UK's policies on immigration, net zero and housing
08:40were in direct conflict with its own values.
08:44So in essence, because an employee was supporting Reform
08:47and Reform's values were against their values,
08:50they justified his dismissal.
08:53So is that not an employer directly trying to push you
08:57to have certain political views and dismissing you
09:00if you support a party they don't like?
09:02This is the very problem here.
09:04So whether you like and agree with Ben's posts or not,
09:07and for the record, I don't agree with everything that Ben posts,
09:10but that's not the point.
09:12As a barrister, we don't necessarily agree with every client that we represent.
09:16For example, I don't do criminal work,
09:17but if a barrister were to object to what a client is accused of doing
09:22in the criminal courts and therefore refused to defend them,
09:26we wouldn't really have a justice system.
09:28We need a justice system that will fearlessly and fairly fight for both sides here.
09:33We've had people accused of espousing their political views
09:37and being punished for it.
09:39So the bottom line here, as I say, is whether or not,
09:43if it gets that far, a tribunal decides that any of these cross the line.
09:46So once again, if you have a social media account
09:48and you post your views now again,
09:50it might just be a repost, not your own post.
09:52You might repost a cartoon which you agree with
09:54because you have strong views on that particular subject
09:57and your employer finds it,
09:59then you might end up in the same position as Ben here.
10:01Whether you agree with everything he posts or not is somewhat irrelevant.
10:05Hence me asking you to watch the full video at the outset.
10:09So if you value your freedom of speech,
10:11I strongly urge you to join Free Speech Union.
10:13They've not asked me to do this.
10:15They don't know I'm doing this,
10:16but I am a member myself.
10:17I would urge you to do the same
10:19because one day you might need the support of someone
10:21if you've expressed a view and your employer fires you for it.
10:24And especially with the political landscape being what it is right now,
10:27very polarizing views from very different parties.
10:31If you are seen to support one of those parties
10:33and your employer doesn't like it,
10:35then you may well be in trouble.
10:37So please take that to heart.
10:39Consider everything that I've put up here for you to read,
10:41do your own research, etc.
10:43My video is not the only source of information on this.
10:46But I felt this video was worth doing
10:48just to give a more balanced view than my original post on X.
10:52So hopefully you found that useful.
10:54Please do subscribe to the channel, support Free Speech.
10:57And as always, thank you for watching.