Oxford dons have accused the university of allowing political diversity to “wither away” after its head of equality celebrated the Belgian police’s attempt to shut down a conservative conference.
As reported by the Telegraph, Vernal Scott, who has led Oxford’s “equality and diversity unit” since October 2023, hailed the closure of the National Conservatism Conference on Tuesday in a since-deleted post on X, formerly Twitter. The report continues:
Police entered and then blockaded the conference, at which Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman were speaking, to shut it down after a court order claimed the event could be homophobic, offend minorities or incite public disorder.
“I applaud the mayor and police of Brussels for their decision to close down this conference,” Mr Scott wrote online.
The court order, which was later reversed, was condemned by No 10 as “extremely disturbing” and by Mrs Braverman as an undermining of “free speech” by the “Brussels thought police”.
Now the University of Oxford has been drawn into the row after Mr Scott, who was previously head of diversity and inclusion at Essex police, made his widely-condemned remarks.
Prof Lawrence Goldman, an emeritus fellow at St Peter’s College, said that Mr Scott “does not understand the meaning of his job title”.
“Vernal Scott’s comment sums up the problem in our universities, which have focused on increasing social diversity while allowing intellectual and political diversity to wither away,” he said.
“They’ve ceased to be places where the full range of ideas is represented and can be discussed, which means they’re no longer fulfilling the function of a university.
“Is it any wonder that universities, Oxford among them, are no longer to be trusted to uphold freedom of expression when their staff make comments like this?”
Sir Noel Malcolm, a senior research fellow at All Souls, said: “It’s very troubling to think that someone appointed to promote ‘diversity’ has such a narrow concept of what diversity is.
“At a university, one of the most important forms of diversity is diversity of opinion.
“Students will never learn the basic habits of respectful argument, on objective grounds, with people whose views differ from their own, if they are encouraged to think that the best way to deal with such people is just to silence them.”
Yuan Yi Zhu, a tutor at Harris Manchester College, said: “Given the recent freedom of speech and academic freedom controversies at the University of Oxford, it is worrying that one of the university’s senior administrators seems to take the view that political speech, however unpopular, can and should be suppressed in this manner.”
Toby Young, the director of the Free Speech Union, said Mr Scott had rejected “diversity” by choosing to offer his backing to “tinpot authoritarians determined to silence dissent”.
He said: “Shouldn’t a champion of diversity at Britain’s oldest university be championing diversity of thought instead of cheering on tinpot authoritarians determined to silence dissent?
“I suggest he reads his employer’s own free speech policy, which is extremely good.”
Worth reading in full.
