Oxford dons have called for the university’s head of equality to resign after he signed an open letter in support of a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the university. The Telegraph has more.
Vernal Scott, who has led Oxford’s equality and diversity unit since October 2023, has put his name to a letter declaring solidarity with students protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza.
The demonstrators set up tents on the lawn of the university’s Pitt Rivers Museum on Monday and have said they will not leave until the university meets their demands, which include cutting financial ties with companies linked to Israel and calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Mr. Scott last month celebrated the closure of the National Conservatism Conference by police in Brussels, which prompted accusations of double standards from Oxford dons.
Now the university has been drawn into fresh controversy after Mr. Scott, who was previously head of diversity and inclusion at Essex Police, pledged his support for the pro-Palestinian protesters.
Nigel Biggar, the Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at Oxford, told the Telegraph that Mr. Scott “should bite his tongue and remain silent… or else resign from his post”.
“‘Mr Scott has a legal right, of course, to express his political opinions. However, as a senior administrative official in Oxford University, he should bite his tongue and stay silent,” said Prof Biggar.
“Otherwise, students over whom he has power and who dissent from his views will have good reason to fear hostile discrimination from him.
“He needs to demonstrate even-handedness towards a diversity of political positions or else resign from his post.”
Prof. Lawrence Goldman, an Emeritus Fellow at St Peter’s College, added that Mr. Scott’s actions undermine Oxford’s claim to be an open and tolerant institution.
“Last week, Vernal Scott, Oxford’s head of diversity and inclusion (sic) openly advocated the closure of a Conservative political conference,” he said.
“This week he openly supports protests that compromise the safety of Jewish students and others at Oxford. He doesn’t understand his job description.
“How the university deals with him will be a matter of great interest to many of its alumni and its Jewish donors.”
Worth reading in full.
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“Equality” —–A cautionary tale.—– “Equality” according to who? Does “equality” mean the same to a black person who are convinced they are oppressed as to white person who does not feel like an oppressor? Does “equality” mean the same to someone on minimum wage as it does to a billionaire? Do people want “equality” of opportunity or do they think we should have “equality of outcomes? —–I suggest “equality” is in the eye of the beholder.
Vernal looks like a total mincer to me, what do you think Varmint?
Not by looking at his face. Only by listening to his words and looking at his actions. The whole “equality” business is just like every other commie scam.
Vernal look rather effete to my gimlet eye. Why are we giving non jobs to such utterly mediocre mincers?
If you give someone a well-paid job with prestige and power, and you call it “Head of Equality”, they have no incentive to increase “equality” because if they did then they’d be out of a job.
Exactly
Like SAGE, who only exist when there’s an “emergency”, or the WHO who peddle “pandemics”, or pharma companies who may prefer us to rely on their “treatments” instead of looking after ourselves.
Orwell prediction comes true, yet again!!!
And what a surprise he’s not Mother’s Pride.
Any organisation with an ‘Equality Officer’ deserves to be shut down in its entirety.
Off-T
Slightly.
https://thenewconservative.co.uk/islam-demands-labour-will-comply/
Even Frank Haviland is issuing words of warning as sectarian politics pushes in to the space vacated by the Uniparty.
How precisely does expressing oppositon to the policy and actions of the state of Israel in the middle-east compromise the safety of Jewish students at Oxford?
Are you actually serious? I’d guess you are just plain stupid but hey, maybe you think you are right and there is nothing to see here just like 1936.
I guess that you don’t have an answer to the question and that’s why you’re trying to insult me instead.
The excerpt mentions two demands of the protestors:
Professor Goldman asserts that this would compromise the safety of Jewish students […] at Oxford. However, he doesn’t state why he believes so and you calling me names and waving Nazi tokens doesn’t demonstrate that, either. Hence, so far, there’s no reason for this assertion. I can think of a meta-reason, namely, both Goldman and you really want someone powerful to shut these protests down, nat-con style.
I actually find it impossible to believe you said that to be honest. Does it not occur to you what “From the River to the Sea” means? How would you feel if a bunch of your co-workers chanted, day after day, a slogan which meant they wish to kill you?
Seriously, does it really not compute that they are deliberately and knowingly targeting Jewish students? I cannot, for the life of me, see how you can not see this.
Does it not occur to you what “From the River to the Sea” means? How would you feel if a bunch of your co-workers chanted, day after day, a slogan which meant they wish to kill you?
I “feel” you’re making an incoherent statement. “From the River to the Sea” refers to the country between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea which is supposed to be liberated from Israeli control. This doesn’t express a wish to kill aynone, not even necessarily for someone to be killed there, as a peaceful solution is perfectly conceivable and not really more unlikely than any other, ie, totally unlikely, as Israel is the military great power in this area and this is unlikely to change anytime soon.
BTW, my position on that is that I resent being dragged into the petty squabbles between J-semites and M-semites in a “distant country I know (next to) nothing of” and couldn’t care less about. Except maybe a bit of Schadenfreude that our former enemies (ie, enemies of the central powers) in this region are still at each other throats fighting for the spoils of 1918.
I did think this was funny, mind. The terrorist-supporting, Jew-hating rape-apologists won’t see the humour though. To them every word reported by actual terrorist organizations, who can’t stop declaring how much they hate, well, everyone who isn’t them, is the Gospel;
https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1788257560182571464
Many years ago the leftie nutcases stood solidly behind the Jews at the Battle of Cable Street. Today they are the Nazi’s. Socialism does not really change much, it just has a change of clothes now and again. The sad thing is that people like this fool, and those in the camps, do not even realise who they are.
The Black Shirts of Oswald Mosley were fascists but not antisemitic, at least until their marches were sabotaged by Communists & Jews.
The rise of Oswald Mosley:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ZZkPTTkrM
Maybe Nigel Biggar, the Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at Oxford should resign as he has obviously lost his “moral” compass by supporting the Jewish slaughter of the indigenous Palestinians.
Do please look up some history and remove the “indigenous” bit. Also, did you know that Israel has the best record in the world for not killing civilians? They make a point of warning exactly where they are going to attack and give civilians time to move.
Perhaps the terrorist-supporting Jeremy Corbyn fan club on here could remind us of a time when Israel actually initiated a conflict in the Middle East, in comparison to their many hate-fueled, barbarian jihadist neighbours that surround them. I’d rather be surrounded by a load of Jews than live in a Muslim majority neighbourhood any day of the week.
You are hilarious.
Love the satire.
This is hilarious:What are the conspiracy theories MPs have been warned about? (msn.com)
Good grief. More taxpayers money wasted. So if the usual “fact checkers” – ‘trusted news initiative’ FFS – declare a conspiracy theory then we are supposed to believe it.
Yeah right.
So there is no ‘reset?’
There is no ‘replacement?’
We really are living through ‘1984’ and 2 + 2 definitely equals 5.
I thought this letter written by Jewish students to the community of Columbia University was excellent. I will never ever, for as long as I live, understand why people would wish to deny these people their fundamental right to self-determination in their homeland. Muslims have 50+ nations, many of which they got rid of Christians and Jews from, and if there are any still left in some of those places they live like second class citizens, persecuted and murdered every single day. And yet they have the absolute audacity to begrudge and war over a tiny piece of land, approx the size of Wales, which is the only place the Jews get to call ”home”. There is no sense, no rational to that sort of mindset, none.
And yet these ‘useful idiots’, these cheerleaders of terrorists have the temerity to show their ignorance by accusing Israel of ”ethnic cleansing”?! LOL Well I think opening a history book might be a good place to start before you accuse Jews of ethnic cleansing, because the Muslims know a thing or two about being ‘colonizers’, to put it mildly. Approx 2 million Muslims/Arabs live peacefully, enjoying equal rights in Israel. How many Jews and Christians can say the same living in the majority Muslim countries?
”Many of us sit next to you in class. We are your lab partners, your study buddies, your peers, and your friends. We partake in the same student government, clubs, Greek life, volunteer organizations, and sports teams as you.
Most of us did not choose to be political activists. We do not bang on drums and chant catchy slogans. We are average students, just trying to make it through finals much like the rest of you. Those who demonize us under the cloak of anti-Zionism forced us into our activism and forced us to publicly defend our Jewish identities.
We proudly believe in the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity. Contrary to what many have tried to sell you – no, Judaism cannot be separated from Israel. Zionism is, simply put, the manifestation of that belief.
Many of us are not religiously observant, yet Zionism remains a pillar of our Jewish identities. We have been kicked out of Russia, Libya, Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Poland, Egypt, Algeria, Germany, Iran, and the list goes on. We connect to Israel not only as our ancestral homeland but as the only place in the modern world where Jews can safely take ownership of their own destiny.
The evil irony of today’s antisemitism is a twisted reversal of our Holocaust legacy; protestors on campus have dehumanized us, imposing upon us the characterization of the “white colonizer.” We have been told that we are “ the oppressors of all brown people ” and that “the Holocaust wasn’t special”. Students at Columbia have chanted “we don’t want no Zionists here”, alongside “death to the Zionist State” and to “go back to Poland” where our relatives lie in mass graves.”
https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vRQgyDhIjZupO2H-2rIDXLy_zkf76RoM-_ZIYsOfn9FkI7TETgRtOfXK9VobMvGh6iEZfDPgALXJTCR/pub
Well 10 out of 10 for consistency, at least. 0 out of 10 for common sense, decency or democracy.
He managed to mess up the police then move on to Oxford? His credentials must be brilliant because from Essex to Oxford is quite an upgrade. Whoever appointed him should be ashamed. Mind you, these days every HR department has to kowtow to Stonewall. Diversity champion my foot!