FSU Brings Legal Challenge Against Government for Scrapping Freedom of Speech Act
The Free Speech Union has threatened to bring a judicial review against Bridget Phillipson after she halted the Freedom of Speech Act just days before it was due to come into force. The Telegraph has the story.
The Education Secretary announced last week she had pulled the plug on the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 and would now consider repealing it.
The flagship Tory policy was set to require universities, colleges and student unions to actively promote free speech on campus.
Prof Arif Ahmed, the Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the Office for Students (OfS), had also spent a year designing a complaints scheme to implement the law. It would have allowed him to take submissions from academics who had been “cancelled” over their personal beliefs.
The Free Speech Union said the Government’s decision to “kill off” the legislation would make it “virtually impossible for students and academics to challenge radical progressive ideology on campus”.
In a pre-action protocol letter, the first stage before a judicial review, it alleged Ms. Phillipson’s decision to axe the legislation was “unlawful”.
“The Secretary of State was not entitled to act as she has done because she opposes the legislation or its policy. Any repeal of the legislation is a matter for Parliament not the executive,” the letter sent on Friday claimed.
The Free Speech Union also accused the Education Secretary of acting unlawfully by removing protections for “people of certain protected groups”, such as “gender critical persons or those who espouse minority political views”.
It called on Ms. Phillipson to publish proof that she had considered the possible implications of repealing the free speech laws for certain groups.
The Act was introduced after a series of rows over the so-called cancellation of academics and students over their views. They include Dr. Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor, who resigned from Sussex University in 2021 after what she described as a witch-hunt over her views on transgender issues.
Toby Young, the Director of the Free Speech Union, said: “Bridget Phillipson’s decision to kill off a piece of legislation that enjoyed cross-party support in the last parliament gives the lie to her claim that she’s too high-minded to engage in culture war politics.
“This is a flagrant abuse of political power in pursuit of a narrow ideological agenda. At a stroke, she has made it virtually impossible for students and academics to challenge radical progressive ideology on campus.”
Worth reading in full.
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There are a couple of points made by Bridget Phillipson that really drive home the folly of this 11th-hour repeal of the Freedom of Speech Act:
What would Ms.Phillipson prefer of British universities? That they become unified political forces? That they become closed-minded echo-chambers of the correct ideologies? That they are best described as “political battlefields” is what makes our university culture so valuable as open debating forums and (ideally) bastions of academic eclecticism.
She doesn’t give a toss about “antisemitism” – that’s just a convenient excuse. Banning “hate speech” sounds like a good idea until you think about how it would end up working in practice.
What would Ms.Phillipson prefer of British universities? That they become unified political forces? That they become closed-minded echo-chambers of the correct ideologies?
YES, exactly what she and her party want, compliant and obedient subjects.
You could expect Free Speech to be removed in North Korea, Russia, China, but for a Minister to tell people they cannot speak freely in the UK incase it upsets some people is beyond absurd, and yet here we are in this country having just handed a vast majority to these insidious Marxist parasites which will make them virtual dictators. I wonder how many people who voted for this trash are after only 3 weeks saying to themselves “Oh, no what have I done”?
And it will only get worse.
We live in ever more dangerous times.
The Conservatives fiddled for 14 years whilst the UK burned.
The US Democrats are more dangerous and what is happening in the UK under Labour is also dangerous.
If you want to know how weak Keir Starmführer is, he had to appoint ‘off with the fairies‘ Milliband or else ….
That is how weak he is.
Not many is the answer to your question. Most will probably say “I didn’t vote for this”, remaining asleep to the fact that this was all predictable and that removal of freedom of speech is a part of a socialist upheaval that has been attempted by previous labour governments but is now in full swing under Keir Stalin. All right-wing opinion will become far-right hate speech. The “Overton window” of political discourse will narrow to encompass only the spectrum of the political left. The current riots are necessary for restricting freedom of movement, as is environmental catastrophism for net-zero and the energy poverty that will come with it…. All predictable stuff that I imagine went over the heads of many red voters (who I’m sure are now red with embarrassment!)
It is far worse in Germany. The following article by a German citizen contains a breakdown of various fascist state provisions being used today by the German state against political dissent – it is as if the Nazis were never defeated. And it is a reason why the UK should keep out of European political union because of the long-term dangers to basic freedoms that poses: Police in Baden-Württemburg break up a perfectly legal private political meeting and ban Martin Sellner from an entire town in this, the best and most democratic Germany of all time Here is an extract giving several examples: The past four years have been a very amazing time in Germany – a time in which I’ve learned many new and exciting things about my country.For example, I’ve learned that the state can use emergency provisions to literally house-arrest its entire population indefinitely.I’ve learned that our politicians can forbid protests on the slightest pretence, that they can conduct a public hate campaign against millions of their own citizens who refuse to comply with nonsense hygienic measures, and then after the hysteria has passed, use the towering indifference of a complicit media to impose an enduring regime… Read more »
It is far worse in Germany. The following article by a German citizen contains a breakdown of various fascist state provisions being used today by the German state against political dissent – it is as if the Nazis were never defeated. And it is a reason why the UK should keep out of European political union because of the long-term dangers to basic freedoms that poses: Police in Baden-Württemburg break up a perfectly legal private political meeting and ban Martin Sellner from an entire town in this, the best and most democratic Germany of all time Here is an extract giving several examples: The past four years have been a very amazing time in Germany – a time in which I’ve learned many new and exciting things about my country.For example, I’ve learned that the state can use emergency provisions to literally house-arrest its entire population indefinitely.I’ve learned that our politicians can forbid protests on the slightest pretence, that they can conduct a public hate campaign against millions of their own citizens who refuse to comply with nonsense hygienic measures, and then after the hysteria has passed, use the towering indifference of a complicit media to impose an enduring regime… Read more »
Iti s already pretty limited. Not so much in what you can say on campus but in the sense of consensus opinion and that which falls outside of it. I would urge them to block it because it will just bring down their system even more quickly. You are already seeing it in terms of the huge decline in the numbers of arts and humanities applications at British universities. Accelerate it if you will I am not a fan of the slow kill.
Donated. We are living in an increasingly surreal post-modernist society. This government seems to be intent on destroying anything decent that remains of this country.
We will be reminded that it is over. Intelligence sources in Russia and China say that the populations of Western countries have no ability to fight back at the moment given the deep capture of their political systems. .It as a matter of accepting the managed decline and that we are essentailly invalids. The system will change but we will lose our autonomy and sovereignty. It is not a good situation but it has to happen at least in the short term.If nothing else we can say that we became aware of it at the last minute. Perhaps later we can assert ourtselves but we will have to wait and see.
I won’t use ‘Go Fund Me.’
I suggest you donate direct to the FSU instead.
Bravo FSU.