‘Rule of the mob’ is curbing free speech in universities warns former equalities chief Trevor Phillips

Feb 3, 2019 by Jill

By Bhvishya Patel, Mailonline:

Free speech is being restrained as universities follow the ‘rule of the mob’, the former equalities chief Trevor Phillips has said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Phillips argued that vice-Chancellors in charge of the academic institutions needed to take a stand in order to prevent the erosion of free speech.

The former chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, who wrote the original ‘No Platform Policy’ for the National Union of Students, argued that the policy was now being used in an ‘authoritarian’ way.

He added that what was initially implemented to protect people was now being used to restrict the voices of those with whom they disagreed with.

[…] Mr Phillips said responsibility did not lay soley with students but with those who ran the academic establishments.

He added: ‘What you are really talking about is the rule of the mob – that has come to campuses. I find all of those things incredibly threatening.’

According to new government guidelines, freedom of speech is a legal requirement in academic institutions and student unions.

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Read also: Why aren’t illiberal universities challenged? by Nigel Biggar, UnHerd