The campaign to save the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act continues to gain momentum, with some of Britain’s most eminent authors now urging the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, to drop her opposition to the new law (Times).
One of Ms Phillipson’s first actions in office was to stop commencement of this carefully crafted piece of legislation, which had been designed to tackle cancel culture at English universities and uphold lawful free speech on campus.
Having received cross-party support during the last Parliament, its most important clauses were due to be commenced on 1st August.
However, because Rishi Sunak called an election before the Act had been fully implemented, Ms Phillipson seized her chance to derail it.
In an attack on the Education Secretary, more than two dozen authors accused the government of failing to safeguard “humane and liberal values”.
The authors say that the new act “offers our best hope of restoring a more tolerant climate” on campus.
“[It would give] lecturers and students ready access to justice when their free-speech rights are infringed,” they wrote.
Those signing the letter include the novelists Ian McEwan, Lady Antonia Fraser and Lionel Shriver. They have been joined by the philosopher AC Grayling, the actor and author Stephen Fry and the former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion.
Others signatories include Tom Holland, co-host of The Rest is History podcast, the literary agent Neil Blair and the former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies.
Grayling said that he believed in promoting the causes that “wokeism” defended but regarded most “cancelling” as a “mistaken strategy” that could have “a chilling effect on the freedom of expression”.
“A university is a place where every idea, every point of view, however disgusting some might be, should be aired, discussed, analysed, understood and whenever necessary challenged,” he said.
“It is as tough to engage with the views of those with whom one emphatically disagrees as it is to engage with racists and sexists, but to lock them in a box is never more than a temporary solution.”
He added: “Defending free speech in universities, which involves not shutting down dissent and protest, requires using better free speech than the free speech of others when harmfully used.”
Last month, seven Nobel laureates along with 600 other academics also wrote to the Education Secretary asking her to reconsider her decision to torpedo the Act, warning that a failure to act would allow staff and students to be “hounded, censured and silenced” for holding legitimate, legal views.
Earlier this month, the Free Speech Union (FSU) was given a court date for its judicial review hearing against Ms Phillipson – 23rd January.
Our case is that the Secretary of State acted illegally in revoking the Act’s commencement regulations. For almost 350 years, the governance of this country has rested on a golden premise: ministers of the Crown may not set aside the law made by Parliament. We say that a new government, flushed with power and ideological fervour, has thrown that rule to the wind.
The fact that the Administrative Court has given permission for this case to be heard in the High Court means that the FSU has, at the very least, an arguable case.
We have a stellar legal team helping us. Our in-house legal team is also working hard to support them so that we can save whatever money we can while presenting the strongest possible case. But this is the biggest fight we have taken on to date and is going to require hundreds of hours of research, preparation, drafting and other work — so if you think you can, please consider making a donation.
Thank you for your help in this fight. Your donation will help us strike a blow for academic freedom and send a message to the Government that the power of the executive is not unlimited.
