Thread by @docrussjackson

THREAD

Anti-woke Kemi Badenoch & anti-woke Toby Young love controversial Professor Arif Ahmed, who has just been appointed as the HE 'free speech Tsar' - despite HE not needing one.

He claims to be "not partisan" & not interested in culture wars.

#Bullshit

According to the Govt’s Office for Students, in 2017-2018 just 0.1% of campus talks were blocked.

A study of 10,000 student events in 2020 found just two instances of “no-platforming” (one involved a convicted fraudster & the other Jeremy Corbyn).

wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/is…

‘Thousands of events take place on campus every year; there are a few issues, but, when these issues arise, they usually gain substantial media coverage & such media coverage propagates myths’ - Joint Committee on Human Rights’ 2018 report on ‘Freedom of Speech in Universities’.

‘We have found no evidence of free speech being systematically suppressed. Our experience to date is that providers are working hard to be compliant with their duty under section 43 of the Education Act’.

The Govt don't care as long as it generates a few culture war headlines.

His appointment follows a now familiar authoritarian Govt pattern: a 'problem' is identified (eg race, extremism, social mobility, policing etc); then they appoint a sympathetic ideologically extreme 'Tsar' to head an "independent" Commission & Report.

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

So Arif Ahmed, a controversial fellow of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University, is now the Higher Education Bill’s new ‘Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom’ Tsar.

Why is he ANOTHER controversial appointment?

In Dec 2021, Ahmed was named in a @BylineTimes report into a network of academics influencing Govt policy on ‘free speech’ in universities, steered by pro-Trump lobbyists & donors linked to dangerous Republican billionaire venture capitalist, Peter Thiel.

bylinetimes.com/2021/12/10/pet…

Joel Rosen, President of the Union of Jewish Students, expressed concern about the bill in a letter to Gillian Keegan, saying the bill could "foreseeably allow a range of extremists including Holocaust deniers, legal recourse to obtain compensation if they are denied a platform”.

Rosen highlighted how this bill could have a detrimental effect on Jewish students as it could allow “those who espouse antisemitic views to intimidate Jewish students while under the protection of the law”.

What next? Protect in law reactionary racists, homophobes & fascists?

University free speech policies have evolved over centuries, involving the finest minds in the country. The UK Govt has taken a sledge hammer to crack a nut, for the sake of some stupid ideologically extreme 'anti-woke' culture war crap, in yet another act of cultural vandalism.