As we approach Christmas after this most challenging of years, families are looking forward to a precious bit of downtime; some welcome if short-lived respite from the horrors of the pandemic.
But for one family, the festive cheer will be somewhat muted. Will and Rachel Knowland, together with their five children ranging in ages from 14 to a still breastfeeding ten-month-old, are about to be evicted from their home in the grounds of Britain s most famous public school. And all, they claim, for daring to stand up for free speech.
Will Knowland is the Eton English teacher fired for refusing to remove a lecture entitled The Patriarchy Paradox from his YouTube channel, in which he questions current radical feminist orthodoxy and rails against erosion of male identity and traditional gender roles.
SIR – Your Leading Article (December 16) is absolutely right.
Trust in people’s common sense. The vast majority will do what is right. The usual suspects will be irresponsible regardless.
John Taylor
Purley, Surrey
SIR – They break the rules; you bend the rules; I have a very good reason for what I am doing.
Kate Wylie Carrick
SIR – You report that two leading medical journals have criticised the Government’s stance on Christmas.
Readers should understand that the Health Service Journal is actually a magazine for NHS managers. The British Medical Journal, meanwhile, is partly a peer-reviewed publication, but in recent years has also published political comment. Most of this has been critical of government policy (no matter which party is in power), and both journals could be said to share the view that the NHS runs the country.
The Eton teacher who lost an appeal against his sacking in a free speech row today admitted he was disappointed by the decision.
Will Knowland spoke out just hours after an appeal panel chaired by Prince William and Prince Harry s former housemaster at the school ruled that his dismissal was justified.
As he walked his bull mastiff on the nearly deserted streets of Eton, he told MailOnline: I am disappointed, but not surprised.
Mr Knowland went on to claim that he believed it was inevitable that the appeal hearing held at the school yesterday would find against him.
Will Knowland spoke out just hours after an appeal panel chaired by Prince William and Prince Harry s former housemaster at the school ruled that his dismissal was justified. He is pictured today
Will Knowland: Eton governors back teacher s sacking | News thetimes.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thetimes.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A sacked Eton College tutor at the centre of a free speech row has today lost his appeal.
The governing body of the £42,500-a-year Berkshire college has upheld the decision of school chiefs to sack Will Knowland.
The English teacher was dismissed over an online lecture tackling radical feminism and the concept of toxic masculinity .
His dismissal, for reportedly refusing to take down his lecture from his personal YouTube channel, sparked outrage among students, who immediately launched a petition for Mr Knowland to be reinstated.
It also plunged the private school, which is currently closed due to a Covid-19 outbreak, into a row over its supposedly woke values under current headmaster Simon Henderson.