Free Speech and the UK

Kathleen Stock hits it out of the park

Yesterday, Kathleen Stock defied the protestors including one Just Stop Oil devotee who glued themselves to the floor and spoke at the Oxford Union. She did it with grace and aplomb. Freedom of speech is as much (if not more so) about the freedom to listen to others speaking as it is the freedom to speak. People who went to the Oxford Union yesterday did so because they wanted to hear Kathleen Stock speak. The time to protest would have been during the Q &A through the mechanism of asking the insightful question. Kathleen Stock warns universities of being ‘propaganda machines’ (archive.is)

The fact that Rishi Sunak tweeted out his support for free speech and none of the other leaders who lead the opposition did — speaks volumes. Sir Ed Davey who is in charge of Liberal Democrats and Sir Kier Starmer in charge of Labour both believe certain people with a penis can be a woman and they both kept silent about the need for free speech in a mature democracy. Rishi Sunak on Twitter: "A free society requires free debate. @Docstockk's invitation to the @OxfordUnion should stand and students should be allowed to hear and debate her views. We mustn’t allow a small but vocal few to shut down discussion." / Twitter

I thought Kathleen Stock said it well when she said: “Generally what I find more worrying is when institutions listen to protesters and take that voice through into the institution and basically become propaganda machines for a particular point of view and then everyone else in that institution feels that they can’t say what they want to say.”

Protesting has happened on campuses since the 1920s when student activism became a thing. Edward R Murrow met his wife through their involvement in organizing students to make a difference in the early 1930s. What is new is the institutions become propaganda machines which silence dissent.

The Times of London did a really good leader on Kathleen Stock: https://archive.is/igEmJ

As did the Telegraph on why free debate is a necessity: https://archive.is/UBVEe

The Guardian was silent, but did manage a review of Gender Wars — a programme which featured Stock as well as Trans activists. Gender Wars review – you’d need hundreds more of these shows to truly address the issues around trans rights | Television & radio | The Guardian

Several of the activists were disappointed with the programme as it featured Stock and wrote an open letter about it. It is an interesting take: https://c4genderwars.blogspot.com/2023/05/when-it-comes-to-trans-and-non-binary.html

The Telegraph expose at the weekend about Susie Green’s involvement with GIDS and how despite having no medical training makes for interesting reading. https://archive.is/GZkF1

And finally I did like JKR’s ‘They say karma’s a bitch, but I hear she is a TERF’