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The government was right to ditch the free speech act – but for all the wrong reasons

If you are on the same side as UCU and NUS in this fight, something might not be quite right

August 5, 2024 12:10
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University College, London
3 min read

UJS and the Antisemitism Policy Trust have welcomed the decision of the new government to put on hold, and quite possibly repeal, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. This would have, if implemented, put in place mechanisms for staff and students to much more easily seek redress from their institutions if their rights to engage in free speech, within the law, were infringed.

As things like Holocaust denial are within the law, these two organisations were worried that this would create a more hostile environment on campus for students. They were also concerned that as a number of the things that the IHRA definition of antisemitism says are antisemitism are nevertheless lawful speech, implementing the act would put the nail in the coffin of universities adopting and upholding the IHRA definition.

I happen to think that UJS and the Antisemitism Policy Trust are right about these consequences of the Act, that they were right to campaign against it and that this was the right decision by the government. But although the government made the right decision, it was for all the wrong reasons.

It’s not free speech that causes antisemitism on campus - it’s the complete lack of it. Academia has been taken over by a far-left worldview that splits everyone into either oppressor or oppressed. Jews, because they are perceived by the left to have white skin and to be rich and successful, can only ever in this simplistic way of thinking be oppressors, never oppressed. Academics and university leaders either buy into this frame of mind or, if they disagree with it, are too afraid of what their colleagues will say about them to openly come out against it. This is what the Freedom of Speech Act was designed to put a stop to: the idea that there is only one permitted right way of thinking in universities.