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The Spectator: the magazine police don’t want you to read

Retired special constable Julian Foulkes is one of the latest targets of police officers who seem more eager to crack down on free speech than fight crime. The 71-year-old Spectator reader was detained for eight hours in November 2023 before being interrogated and given a caution after he referenced an anti-Semitic mob storming a Russian airport, in a reply to an activist threatening to sue then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman for labelling the pro-Palestine protests ‘hate marches’. While Foulkes’s tweet was first flagged to the Metropolitan Police Intelligence Command before being raised with Kent Police, it appears the discovery of a number of copies of The Spectator magazine at the ex-constable’s home persuaded officers to double down on his detention. The magazine the establishment don’t want you to read…

Of particular interest to officers were Douglas Murray books and editions of The Spectator magazine

In some rather bizarre video footage, police can be seen ransacking Foulkes’s home and making comments about the literature he possessed.

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Steerpike
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Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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