{"id":1481,"date":"2021-02-19T14:17:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T14:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=1481"},"modified":"2021-02-25T10:36:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T10:36:39","slug":"freedom-of-peach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2021\/02\/19\/freedom-of-peach\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of Peach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just as subtext<\/cite> was preparing to go to press, the Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP fired a culture war salvo that we felt merited further discussion.<\/p>\n

No doubt eager to divert focus from their contributions to our highest-in-Europe COVID death tally, the government has announced plans to install a national free speech champion<\/q> with the power to fine universities (and students’ unions) who they believe to have infringed on academic freedom and freedom of speech. This is part of a raft of other measures proposed by the Education Secretary in response to unacceptable silencing and censoring<\/q> on campuses. Supporters and detractors were quick to voice their thoughts along largely predictable political lines. More at the BBC here:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/education-55995979<\/a><\/p>\n

As with many hot-button political topics lately, worries about freedom of speech (particularly on campus) appear to be largely imported from the US context which is, as ever, many years and degrees of intensity ahead of us. Crucially, though, it also has a very different legal environment to the UK, which will stymie any attempt to transplant political debates verbatim, as this proposal ably demonstrates.<\/p>\n

Lacking the concreteness of the first amendment, defining just what free speech<\/q> means in the UK is a more slippery prospect. At the pointiest end of the wedge are proscribed terrorist organisations (National Action, al-Qaida, etc.), for whom it is a criminal offence to profess to belong to, to express support for or to arrange a meeting in support of — presumably this will remain outside the remit of the free speech champion.<\/p>\n

At the broader end of the wedge is the UK’s (very un-US, very European) landscape of hate crimes and, more importantly, hate incidents — otherwise non-criminal actions that are alleged to have been motivated by hate, which may be recorded as such and which the police may choose to follow-up on. One supportive voice in the BBC article — an Oxford University academic who previously had an invitation to a conference celebrating women withdrawn over her stance on transgender rights issues<\/q> — could still be liable to find her comments fall afoul of current hate legislation if perceived to do so by others, no matter how protected the underlying act of speech may be. It’s not clear how the proposed measures would address this.<\/p>\n

And, finally, outside of the wedge entirely, are those speakers who will test the government’s proposed commitment to freedom of speech to its absolute limits. Older readers may remember groups such as the Paedophile Information Exchange, whose founder (and Lancaster alumnus) Tom O’Carroll advocated for the age of consent to be lowered to four<\/q>.<\/p>\n

On a very different note, there is the arrest of photographer Andy Aitchison on 28 January for documenting a protest outside a controversial refugee detention centre in Kent, and the well-publicised case of the Stansted 15 (see subtext<\/cite> 184<\/a>) — the latter group may have just been vindicated on appeal, but how certain are we that this government (or any other) is interested in protecting all points of view in equal measure?<\/p>\n

None of this is to say that this could not be a laudable initiative, only that it is a more nuanced one than adopted US-centric political talking points let on. There are indeed threats to freedom of speech, and many of them stand outwith the hoary left-right divide. Confucius Institutes are prevalent across the UK higher education landscape, for example, and not without controversy; as Chinese government-funded tools, would they welcome robust discussion on that same government’s alleged crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and elsewhere? Will the risk of finding themselves financially on the hook for hosting such attitudes turn UK universities away from the promise of lucrative foreign investment? And how about actions that indirectly inhibit freedom of speech by limiting opportunities for open discourse, such as Lancaster University’s abolishment of the University Court (see subtext<\/cite>s passim) or overuse of commercial in confidence’ (see subtext<\/cite>s equally passim)?<\/p>\n

subtext<\/cite> expects that nobody wishes to see the emboldening of groups like Lancaster’s (seemingly-now-defunct) Traditionalist Society (see subtext<\/cite> Annual Review 2017–18<\/a>) to populate the airwaves at the expense of the security and safety of others, though we fear that, mishandled, this may well be the result of these measures. We’ll do our best to keep you updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as subtext was preparing to go to press, the Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP fired a culture war salvo that we felt merited further discussion. No doubt eager to divert focus from their contributions to our highest-in-Europe COVID death … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[97,611],"class_list":["post-1481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-issue-196"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-nT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":362,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/02\/15\/subtext-173-empowering-your-opinion-with-impartial-information\/","url_meta":{"origin":1481,"position":0},"title":"subtext 173 – ’empowering your opinion with impartial information’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 15 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Fortnightly during term time. Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk Back issues & subscription details:\u00a0http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/about\/ In this issue: editorial, campus fascists, senate newsflash, campus fools, campus activists, ua92, researchgate fail, buses fail, bomb shelter update, we need you, love poem, shart, concert review, letters. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL Back in October, subtext reported\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "editorial"","block_context":{"text":"editorial","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1492,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2021\/02\/19\/subtext-196-wholly-government-approved-free-speaking-subtext\/","url_meta":{"origin":1481,"position":1},"title":"subtext 196 – wholly government-approved free-speaking subtext","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 19 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Frequency determined by contributions received. Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk Back issues & subscription details: http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/about\/ In this issue: editorial, campus update, rent strike, partnerships, freedom of speech, strategy, testing, still recruiting, a poem, letters. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL Exactly one year ago tomorrow, UCU members up and down the country began\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "editorial"","block_context":{"text":"editorial","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":221,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/23\/miscellany\/","url_meta":{"origin":1481,"position":2},"title":"MISCELLANY","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 23 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"OVERHEARD AT LANCASTER In the Management School Hub. A young man obviously very thrilled to have been offered a job at Lancaster University. \u2018I am so pleased, fantastic, and they told me I don\u2019t have to wear a suit every day to work but under no circumstances must I ever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1110,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/12\/13\/hong-kong-phooey\/","url_meta":{"origin":1481,"position":3},"title":"HONG KONG PHOOEY","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 13 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Lancaster University does not seem to be showing a lot of solidarity with its Hong Kong students at the moment. Private Eye and SCAN reported recently on the college accommodation manager who ordered a student to remove a display of sticky notes in a kitchen window which spelled out 'Stand\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":528,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/04\/26\/sufferin-succofash\/","url_meta":{"origin":1481,"position":4},"title":"SUFFERIN’ SUCCOFASH","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 26 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In subtext 173, we reported on the activities of an unofficial far-right student society, which made its presence felt at a public lecture on the politics of fear by raising concerns about the ethnic makeup of Europe, advocating a white Christian Europe, alleging that Israel forcefully castrates immigrants and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":155,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/letters-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":1481,"position":5},"title":"LETTERS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear subtext, I suspect I'm not alone in asking if you've seen our latest signage but if not I suggest you pop 'down south' for a look. 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