““It is absurd to any reasonable person to suggest that the words of a minister are somehow less accountable if they are written by them on Twitter than if they appeared in a press release, or were given in an interview.”” theguardian.com/p/ghadc/stw
Hypocrite Badenoch goes on about 'personal responsibility' but despite the NUJ, the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists, The Society of Editors & many others all criticising Badenoch's aggressive & intimidating tweets, she's STILL not deleted them.
standard.co.uk/insider/kemi-b…
Badenoch made the papers when she was mobilised to spout divisive crap about Critical Race Theory, a legitimate though contested academic discipline. A Govt Minister saying the British state “stands unequivocally against” a particular philosophical approach IS "creepy & bizarre".
In 2018, hypocrite @KemiBadenoch wrote: "The use of aggression or intimidation, either when making points or responding to them, has adverse consequences.... In order to cultivate good societal norms, we each need to exercise personal responsibility".

Do as I say, not as I do.

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More from @docrussjackson

27 Feb
Short THREAD on rising #racism & far-right extremism, based on very concerning updates from @IRR_News.

Please follow & support The Institute of Race Relations & the @RunnymedeTrust - organisations struggling for racial justice in very worrying times.

irr.org.uk/article/calend…
Not just in the UK, but in Spain, Portugal & France, governments & quangos are warning universities & institutions that re-evaluations of colonial history will bring dire consequences – at the exact same time presenting themselves as 'champions of free speech' & academic freedom.
The DoE's proposal for ‘free speech champions’ suggests ‘unacceptable silencing & censorship’ is now widespread on campuses.

It builds on the Govt’s attacks on critical race theory, the ‘dreadful’ (Priti Patel) #BLM protests, as well as the nebulous concept of a ‘woke agenda’. Image
Read 18 tweets
21 Feb
The Govt's #Orwellian paper on 'Higher education: free speech & academic freedom' is, imho, one of the most #sinister moves toward a #totalitarian state that Britain has ever experienced, based on an almost total absence of either good sense or evidence.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
In section 2: "The case for change - Key aims & principles", the central claim that "There is growing concern within government of a chilling effect on university campuses", is based on pathetically flimsy evidence, taken from opaque free-market think tank, the 'Policy Exchange'.
This, one of just a handful of evidenced claims in the entire document about the so-called 'free speech crisis', is taken from a 2019 report called "Academic freedom in the UK" - which used a sample of just 505 UK university students - about 0.02% of UK students!
Read 9 tweets
21 Feb
EVERYONE should be EXTREMELY CONCERNED about the Govt's sinister #Orwellian attacks on free speech: the CHARITY-SILENCING Lobbying Act; 'Online Harms' legislation will SILENCE FREE SPEECH on social media (regulated by Dacre!); & legislation REGULATING FREE SPEECH in Universities.
Orwell’s name is associated with #totalitarianism & the #manipulation of language.

In #doublespeak, words are used to mask their real meaning, & to refer to their exact opposites: the Govt claims of an 'attack on free speech' conceals THEIR OWN repeated attacks on free speech.
Newspeak involves the simplification & purification of the English language to the extent that it functions purely as a means of maintaining state power & control.

Take back control.

The will of the people.

Enemies of the people.

Free speech is under attack from the woke.
Read 5 tweets
21 Feb
"What I stated was, that the Conservative party was, by the law of its constitution, necessarily the stupidest party. Now, I do not retract this assertion; but I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid people are generally Conservative." JS Mill
The Liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill MP (1806-1873) was elected MP for the City of Westminster in 1865 on a platform including votes for women.

This is from a speech he gave on May 31st, 1866:
JS MIll is often invoked by Right as well as left-wingers
in discussions about free speech.

In his book 'On Liberty' he makes an impassioned defence of free speech.

Mill argues that free discourse is a necessary condition for intellectual and social progress.
Read 14 tweets
19 Feb
A THREAD about what the culture war is *really* all about, and what the very effective overall strategy of the Right in Britain, America & beyond has been since Steve Bannon’s ideas became widely disseminated with the help of US Libertarian billionaires.
It’s also a THREAD about why the Left may well be losing the culture war, and how we might have to adapt our strategy.
In the 1980s, academics suggested that words have more consequences than we previously thought: that the habitual use of particular words not only described the world, but framed it in particular ways, giving rise to thinking about & understanding the world in particular ways.
Read 34 tweets
16 Feb
There have been many recent HE reviews in the UK considering academic freedom & freedom of expression (free speech).

While occasionally some academics do feel unable to express themselves, Libertarians opportunistically exploit any situation & pour petrol on a faux culture war.
A major inquiry was conducted in 1996-97 by the National Committee of Inquiry into HE.

The Committee referred to three essential principles relating to institutional autonomy, academic freedom and institutional governance:
• institutional autonomy should be respected. While Govt set the policy framework for HE nationally, the strategic direction & management of individual institutions should be vested wholly in the governance & management structure of autonomous universities & colleges;
Read 32 tweets

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