Last week, the new Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson issued a written statement to the House of Commons saying she intended to sabotage the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, just days before it was due to come into force.
This vital piece of legislation was the one tangible thing the Conservatives did to defend free speech in their 14 years in office.
Indeed, it was thanks to the lobbying efforts of the Free Speech Union that this legislation found itself on to the statute books. It would have imposed a new legal duty on English universities to uphold and promote freedom of speech on campus, and it created a couple of enforcement mechanisms, such as a new statutory tort, to make sure universities didn’t ignore that duty.
Writing for The Telegraph, the Conservative MP and former education minister Claire Coutinho says, “Labour has surrendered to the enemies of free speech”. She continues:
I was the minister who delivered this legislation, which protects the free speech of academics and students in our universities. Labour fought us every step of the way. They were more concerned about the workload of university administrators than the needs of students and academics whose free speech had been curtailed – speaking events had been cancelled, placements at universities had been withdrawn, and in the very worst cases, careers had been ruined.
For what reason? Because they had shared views which were not hateful, nor illegal, but merely controversial.
Our Freedom of Speech Act held universities accountable for the state of free speech on campus and gave academics, students and speakers the right to go to court if their rights were wrongly infringed. It created a new free speech director with a legal duty to protect free speech and investigate cases of no-platforming at universities.
During the passage of the Act, I was horrified to hear the stories of those who had fallen foul of cancel culture and self-censorship on campus. One group of mathematicians were being pressured into “decolonising” their curriculum by suppressing the work of “white mathematicians” and elevating that of “non-white mathematicians”.
The message I heard from them was one I heard countless times: “We are fearful of speaking out because of the potential for a backlash that could put our jobs at risk.”
The truth is that Labour politicians are in denial about the scale of this issue, and they don’t think free speech is worth protecting.
This week the Education Secretary told the BBC that the culture wars on campus “end here”. But the culture wars are not being waged by those who want a free debate on divisive ideology. They are being waged by radical groups of activists on the Left who believe their own sense of self-righteousness trumps the right of other people to disagree.
It takes an eye-watering amount of delusion to accuse people of starting culture wars, when it is those people who are holding the line of mainstream opinion.
Worth reading in full.
At the Free Speech Union, we’ve been taking advice on a range of legal options about the Government’s shocking decision to sabotage the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, and without wishing to tip our hand, it’s safe to say Bridget Phillipson will be hearing from us shortly. The bottom line is we intend to fight this wanton act of vandalism with all we’ve got, but to do so we need to raise as much money as possible.
So, if you’re reading this articles as one of our supporters, now is the time to step off the sidelines, join the fight and become a dues-paying FSU member (to do that, click here).
Members and supporters alike can also donate to our Legal Fighting Fund (click here).
