When Tory MP and former Home Secretary and Suella Braverman tried to speak at Cambridge University last week, the university authorities caved into a pro-Palestine mob and allowed her to be cancelled. This is very worrying for free speech at our universities, writes Braverman in the Telegraph. Here’s an excerpt.
When an elected member of our Parliament is not allowed to speak, something must be wrong. When it happens on the campus of one of our world-class universities, then we have a crisis. This is exactly what happened to me last week, at Cambridge, my alma mater.
My views on issues such as Brexit, immigration, the Israel-Hamas conflict and identity politics are well known and clear. For better or worse, ambiguity isn’t my style.
These are the very same views held by millions of people around the country who voted Conservative only a few months ago at the general election. Many may disagree with me but these opinions are not illegal, extremist or hateful. Most of them were contained in our manifesto.
And yet my scheduled visit to speak to the Cambridge University Conservative Association (which I used to chair) was jumped upon by “Cambridge for Palestine” who branded it “far-Right”, urging their members to protest outside the venue.
This, in itself, did not deter the organisers or myself: I’m used to the rough and tumble of politics and sadly, for the students concerned, being a Conservative on campus these days comes with its downsides. Besides, the right to protest is fundamental to our democracy and one that I respect.
But it’s what happened next that sent chills down my spine. The university authorities, together with the police and other security services, issued stark and unequivocal warnings to the organisers that the event would present a safety risk to the attendees and that it could only proceed if extra security was put on, at a cost of more than £1,000.
It is intriguing that, following the public outcry, the police and authorities have now backed away from the advice they issued last week. But be in no doubt, the organisers were pressured to cancel the event by those “in charge” because I was deemed too risky and the protesters could not be managed.
The perversity of where we have got to cannot be overstated. The bullies, who wanted to intimidate and harass, were not policed but instead enabled. While those of us going about our business peacefully, privately and respectfully were shut down. …
This Labour Government doesn’t care about the crisis. By blocking the Higher Education (Free Speech) Act 2023 from fully coming into force, the Government has scrapped the very protections that would have prevented last week’s fiasco.
“Unless the tide is turned,” she concludes, “this story does not end well: we cannot allow our universities to lead society’s descent into such oppression.”
Worth reading in full.
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we cannot allow our universities to lead society’s descent into such oppression.
But they’re no longer universities – they’re anti-universities that have willingly and enthusiastically entered a New Dark Age where the Enlightenment freedoms (free-speech, freedom of association, the genuine search for knowledge) no longer exist.
It must be against the law to terrorise any event. This is nothing other than MOB RULE. Are we country of laws or mobs?
Not all mobs. State-approved mobs. The rest are ‘far right’ and must be punished
Fair comment as far as it goes.
Perhaps Ms Braverman could remind us which party was in office for the past 14 years when such behaviour became established.
Quite.
And as people seem to put her on a pedestal, what was her voting position on Net 0, Lockdown & Mandates?
I don’t remember seeing her name in any of the (short) lists of MPs voting against covid folly and evil.
Absolutely. In the US, educational institutions that take public money are bound by the 1st Amendment (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”).
Tories had 14 years to remove various laws restricting freedom of speech and enact new ones protecting it.
“I Was Cancelled by Cambridge – – and Starmer’s Labour Bears the Blame,” Says Suella Braverman”
Is this the same Suells Braverman of the Conservative Party in Government which enabled, encouraged, supported, initiated, legalised the whole woke, intersectional, identarian, political, landscape to bring us the shit-show in which we now are all mired?
Medice cura te ipsum – physician go heal thyself… hypocrite!
This isn’t just common or garden protesting though is it? This is bullying and intimidation, if indeed the authorities are admitting the ”protesters could not be managed”. Why couldn’t they be managed? Seems to me that the police and authorities merely enabled this cancellation by siding with or capitulating to the ”protesters”, thereby allowing them to get their wish. The right to freedom of speech works both ways but it would seem the acknowledgment of this right is only understood and respected by the one side, and why should tolerance be only one-sided? It’s exactly the same with the transtifa mafia, who always turn up to intimidate ( or hurl tomato soup ) at Posie Parker and the other ladies at her ”Let Women Speak” events, it’s exactly the same at Speaker’s Corner, because it’s never the Jews and Christians doing the intimidation, assaulting, verbal abuse or getting escorted away by the police. All of it is one-sided, but we are aware of this irrefutable fact by now. The bullies will always win when even the police and authorities don’t stand up to them, thereby empowering them further.
Meanwhile, in Italy;
”Creating unrest in Italy is not enough for the communist pro-Palestinian movement that has called for violent acts against Jews and friends of Israel. In their most recent statement, they share their ultimate goal which is to oust the conservative Meloni government and replace it with one that meets their extremist demands.
As Italian daily Il Giornale reports the far-left Partito dei CARC (Committees to Support the Resistance for Communism) issued a statement on Monday, October 14th, vowing to strengthen their support for the “Palestinian resistance,” while also claiming that “war must also be fought in our country.”
The declaration was made after the government banned two pro-Palestinian rallies due to public security concerns. They were scheduled to take place on October 5th in Rome.
According to media reports, the extremist movement has even published a blacklist of Italian and Israeli companies, as well as Italian Jewish and non-Jewish politicians, academics, diplomats, journalists, and activists, all accused of being “Zionists” and “on Israel’s payroll.” Critics say the statement exposes the people on the list to possible violent retaliation.
Among the listed persons is holocaust survivor Liliana Segre, a 94-year-old senator of the Italian Parliament who has been a frequent target of antisemites.
Another one of the people singled out and called a “Zionist agent” is Francesco Giubilei, president of the conservative think tank Nazione Futura, who told The European Conservative:
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/pro-palestinian-far-left-group-calls-for-ousting-of-meloni-government/
Case in point here. This young lady is removed by the police from a pro-Hamas hate march and being accused of causing ”harassment, alarm and distress” to terrorist-supporters just for holding up a factual sign saying”Hamas is a terrorist organization”. This policeman is the perfect example of what we’re up against. 100% traitor and shameful;
https://x.com/GhorbaniiNiyak/status/1846516016601256143
1) They’re not our universities. So it is not appropriate to allow or disallow anything within the law. If they were ours they would be under our control. It does not matter to me if Cambridge’s supposed elite status is trashed. That should only be a concern for those that run it, teach in it and study in it – and maybe alumni (eg Braverman).
2) Universities are essentially businesses. They have to balance their books like any business (or country, for that matter). If a degree from Cambridge becomes less valuable in future employment prospects then its ‘leadership’ in society will shrivel and die – I think this has been going on for some time. 40 years ago when I worked in the labs in the pharmaceutical industry, the persistent old gag when new recruitment was happening was ‘how to you address an Oxbridge graduate?’ – ‘I’ll have large fries with that’. Yes, it was an old gag even then. A Chemistry related degree from Oxford or Cambridge did not excite the management then – I doubt it would now.
3) Studying at university used to be the preserve of an educational elite. Tony Blair made great strides in dumbing it down. We now have far more universities and far more undergraduates studying far less challenging subjects – standards have slipped significantly.
A lot of them are only viable businesses because the “loans” are not loans at all – they are gifts from the taxpayer which for some students will get paid back.
Even Cambridge get public money: How we use tuition fees | Information Hub (cam.ac.uk)
Save your sympathy for someone more deserving, people.
— Ethnic Indian Priti Patel in charge of the Home Office must have appointed Ethnic Indian Mukund Krishna as Chief Operating Officer of the British Police Federation in 2021.
— Ethnic Indian Suella Braverman in charge of the Home Office must have promoted Ethnic Indian Mukund Krishna to Chief Executive Officer of the British Police Federation last summer 2023.
Well, well, well— what an interesting pattern.
I have read about this before, that once one Ethnic Indian is appointed to any job, they begin to appoint their fellow Ethnic Indians to positions below them. They do the same in Africa.
It’s called “racism” and “nepotism”, networking to control.
Also called “collusion”.
Braverman doesn’t need sympathy, but we do need universities to return to academic goals, even if the locations and the people have to change.
Several people have told of the total dysfunctionality within Whitehall, and I wonder whether these inappropriate appointments were part of internal horse trading, including there being no one else. Remember, several ministers have been accused of bullying: was that an attempt to make a better choice, more acceptable to us?
Triggernometry’s YT video with Dominic Cummings presented the dilemma, if working there: do I stay in the loop, resisting the most ridiculous, or do I disappear, with a more compliant new recruit taking my place?
An effective plan before winning a GE is required to remedy the situation. It cannot be done successfully afterwards. The HoL won’t allow it, for a start. So it is important to gather as much information as possible for that re-election plan, rather than tension relieving attacks on the whistle blowers.
Suella, join Reform, because otherwise you will have no platform for your conservative views