Farrukh Dhondy | Why it’s crucial to stand up for views you may not agree with…
Published Feb 20, 2021, 7:14 am IST
Updated Feb 20, 2021, 7:14 am IST
The definition of hate crime in any democracy should not deteriorate or ever be interpreted as Disagree Crime
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To talk of many things
On cabbages and kings
Clips conversation’s wings
Is of Covid’s mutatings!”
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Without freedom of speech and opinion, there is no democracy. The system of counting votes and giving the majority the privilege of governing in fairness to the minority is only the first requirement. The rule of unoppressive, uncoercive law, freedom of association and assembly, freedom of speech – yes, even on Twitter are some of the rest.
It also comes after North West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen has been in talks with Home Office advisors to scrap hate speech laws which form the basis for many of the actions brought against the people the FSU has protected.
He said: “I am planning on joining the FSU, it has never been more needed than now and the statistics of the cases it has dealt with tell a depressing story about what is happening in Britain.
“We won the battle for Brexit now we must win the battle for free speech in Britain.”
According to its statistics the vast majority of the cases the FSU has dealt with have been from ordinary members of the public.
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ON THE one hand, threatening to cut funding from English heritage bodies that do not promulgate the official fiction that the British empire was an unalloyed force for good.
On the other, arrogating to the state fresh powers to enforce free speech on university campuses that are apparently in the totalitarian grip of left-wing lecturers and their anti-colonial studies.
The flat contradictions in the Tory government’s attempts to divert attention from its failures into a US-style “culture war” are more than simple hypocrisy.
They point to a deep strategic dilemma that ought to make defeating this Tory aim of consolidating their voter base relatively straightforward. It ought to. But it also sets an elephant trap that the left is in danger of jumping into headfirst unless we get our response right. And unless we acknowledge that there is an elephant in the room.
Is freedom of speech being silenced at University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University?
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Students and lecturers alike are divided on whether Kent has a free speech problem.
Scroll down to take part in our poll
The University of Kent at Canterbury. Picture: Chris Davey
The debate has ramped up after the government announced landmark proposals to strengthen free speech at universities.
The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has warned against âunacceptable silencing and censoringâ at university campuses as he unveiled tougher measures such as appointing a Free Speech Champion to investigate whether situations of no-platformed speakers or dismissed academics are unlawful.