We’re leading the charge against thought police
by Nigel Biggar, The Times:
Britain has a problem with free speech. This first struck me when I was organising a conference about the case for colonialism. I approached a young historian who I knew would be interested. He said he’d like to come but on two conditions: that his name would not appear on any list and that his face would not appear in any photographs. He feared for his career if his participation became known to the senior colleagues with whom he shared an office. That was Oxford in May 2018.
[…] The threats to free speech are not imaginary. One is the confusion of reasoned criticism with hatred, so that any principled dissent from fashionable dogma is immediately slapped down as “phobic”. Another is a radically subjective definition of “harassment” or “offence”, which lets guilt be determined entirely by the self-declared “victim”. A further threat is posed by the leaders of universities, who, keen to maintain their student market share, dare not query “woke” orthodoxy.
But there’s hope on the horizon. Wednesday will see the launch of the Free Speech Union (FSU), which sports the bracingly liberal motto, Audi alteram partem, “Listen to the other side”.
Read here (£)
Read also: The enemies of liberty are hunting in packs. That is why we must band together and fight for free speech by Toby Young, Mailonline
Watch: Founder Toby Young introduces Free Speech Union
See also: Kristie wins hearts at Free Speech Union launch, by Tim Dieppe, Christian Concern: teacher Kristie Higgs was sacked for ‘gross misconduct’ after posting on Facebook that she was concerned with the new RSE curriculum.
Why we must win the fight for for free speech, by Brendan O’Neill, spiked
Europe’s New Academic Fascism, by Giulio Meotti, Gatestone Institute: Western universities have become places of personal fear and intellectual terror.
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