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University Free Speech Law Set to be Brought in Next Year

by Toby Young
7 December 2024 11:00 AM

In today’s Times, the Government has trailed the fact that it intends to part-commence the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, which Bridget Phillipson torpedoed earlier this year. The devil will be in the detail, but this looks like a solid win for all those who’ve been campaigning to save the Act, including the Free Speech Union. If the Times has all the details right, the only thing we won’t get is the tort, which would have enabled a wronged student or academic to sue a university in the county court.

New laws protecting free speech on campus are likely to be given the green light in the new year.

However, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act — shelved when Labour won the general election — is expected to be watered down from the proposals first set out under the Tory government. This could remove the right for cancelled speakers to seek compensation.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, faced a backlash after announcing in August that the act, which had already been passed, would be paused while options were considered.

The act was designed to strengthen existing laws by putting a duty on universities and student unions to actively promote as well as protect free speech — and it would have left them liable to being sued by aggrieved parties.

It also created a new role of director of free speech within the Office for Students (OfS), the independent regulator of higher education in England, giving it the power to deal with complaints and penalise universities or student unions for breaches. The Cambridge philosopher Arif Ahmed was appointed to the job but has kept a low profile. Lord Wharton of Yarm, a Conservative peer who retained the Tory whip and was a campaign manager for Boris Johnson, stood down as OfS chairman within days of the election.

Sources say that ministers were taken by surprise at the strength of feeling when the act was put on hold, as it had been widely criticised when going through parliament and was amended by the House of Lords. They believe it will now proceed but discussions about revisions are continuing.

There was an outcry from hundreds of academics and high-profile campaigners, including Stephen Fry, AC Grayling and Richard Dawkins, against it being axed. An open letter said that academics and students had been hounded, censured, silenced or even sacked over the past 20 years for expressing legal opinions.

The Free Speech Union, led by Toby Young, an associate editor of The Spectator, is bringing a judicial review at the end of January to challenge the decision to suspend the act.

Under discussion is the removal of the “statutory tort” element that would allow those who felt they had suffered loss from their free speech being impinged to bring civil claims for damages against universities or student unions.

Worth reading in full.

Not getting the tort is bad news, but if the Government commences the remainder of the Act’s outstanding clauses, that is a far, far better result than complete repeal of the Act, which I suspect the Government would have done in the absence of the campaign various groups have fought to save the Act.

Tags: Bridget PhillipsonFree Speech UnionHigher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act

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11 Comments
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klf
klf
5 months ago

I expected Phillipson to dig her heels in on this. I guess the government has made a calculation that this is a hill not worth dying on. They are so unpopular on many fronts that this has, I guess, had a sobering effect on the degree of zealotry they feel. I expect to see partial backdowns in other areas too.

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Old Arellian
Old Arellian
5 months ago
Reply to  klf

Fingers crossed

5
0
Jeff Chambers
Jeff Chambers
5 months ago

New laws protecting free speech on campus are likely to be given the green light in the new year.

Given that the madleft is the junior partner in an alliance with the transnational corporate aristocracy, an alliance founded on both groups seeking to impose a post-democratic total-control state on us, I’m sceptical about this. And where would the madleft be without its endless proliferation of thought-terminating heresies – its “isms” and “phobias”, and its designation of us as “ists” and “phobes”? I just can’t see them giving up their attempt to control our language and speech.

Last edited 5 months ago by Jeff Chambers
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GroundhogDayAgain
GroundhogDayAgain
5 months ago

Meanwhile, a so-called response to the petition to call a general election.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700143

Fixing the foundations, 22bn black hole… All the usual buzzword tripe.

5
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RW
RW
5 months ago
Reply to  GroundhogDayAgain

The best part is doubtlessly this:

The Government was elected by the British people on a mandate of change

Presumably, on a mandate of chump change, as the people’s government on a budget. With everything getting more expensive all the time, nobody can afford a really full-featured government anymore. Starmer might not be the greatest PM in British history. But he was 75% reduced to clear!

Meaningless drivel the apparatus excreted in lieu of a response after being poked with a stick. Starmer’s gang of people who are unsure if they can really tell whether they are men or women or maybe something else altogether doesn’t even pretend to have some kind of political vision beyond We run the show now! And we’ll save the climate until you all get blue in the face! Hahahahahaha!

The closing maniacal laughter is of course really inappropriate for this bunch of automatons tasked with extracting more money for UN projects from the general public. They’re not that human.

1
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Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
5 months ago

There is no freedom of speech without freedom of thought. Can you not feel how the shackles feel heavier every day? As if even if you stayed true to speaking your truth, there would be less people who publicly acknowledged agreement wth you lest they be identified. It has happened, people being sacked for ‘liking’ something. This is the real issue. You need to remove this cloud of fear and apprehension. There is no excuse for turning a blind eye to this given that you can feel it yourself.

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Heretic
Heretic
5 months ago

Well done to Toby Young and the Free Speech Union for fighting against this anti-democratic attempt to completely discard an Act of Parliament that had already received Royal Assent.

News said the Labour government are doing the same thing to another historically important Act of Parliament that had already received Royal Assent: The Troubles Legacy Act, one of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s greatest contributions to justice and peace, which gave British Army veterans the same immunity against vindictive prosecutions as Traitor Tony Blair unilaterally and outrageously gave to the Catholic IRA Terrorists. Prime Minister Johnson had promised to do this, and he fulfilled his promise faithfully.

Now Labour will reignite the endless persecution of British Army veterans for things that happened half a century ago, while letting the Catholic IRA Terrorists off scot-free for all their heinous atrocities, including the murder of Protestant mother-of-ten children Mrs. Jean McConville, who was dragged from her house, shot dead on a beach, and buried secretly in the sand, as punishment for the “crime” of helping a wounded British Army soldier who had fallen to the ground in front of her garden gate.

Why is the Legacy Act being abolished and what does it mean for Northern Ireland? | The Independent

Last edited 5 months ago by Heretic
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Purpleone
Purpleone
5 months ago

Thought I’d correct the governments slogan for them…

IMG_1804
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RW
RW
5 months ago
Reply to  Purpleone

I suggest

Let’s get Britain’s future backwards!

Last edited 5 months ago by RW
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Myra
Myra
5 months ago

Does this mean the Free Speech Union does not have to take her to court?

1
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adamcollyer
adamcollyer
5 months ago

Let’s just remind ourselves that this whole fiasco is the fault of the previous Conservative government.

The Act was passed as an “enabling Act”, giving the Minister the power to activate it by issuing regulations. This is how Acts of Parliament are normally drafted these days, in post-democratic Britain.

If the Conservatives had passed a proper Act of Parliament as opposed to letting the Blob govern, the provisions would have been put into effect long ago.

2
0

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