The Free Speech Union has written to the Equality and Human Rights Commission urging the watchdog to investigate Nottingham University after it withdrew its offer of an honorary degree to Dr. Tony Sewell following criticism of his report on racial and ethnic disparities which concluded that Britain was not institutionally racist. The FSU believes Nottingham may be guilty of racial discrimination, punishing Dr. Sewell for not holding the ‘correct’ progressive views that it thinks black people ought to hold. The Mail on Sunday‘s Whitehall Correspondent, Georgia Edkins, has more.
The University said it was not appropriate to award the degree while Dr. Sewell was at the centre of a ‘political controversy’.
Yesterday, speaking about the fallout from last year’s 258-page report for the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, the 63 year-old, who already holds a PhD from Nottingham, said: “Nobody was reading the recommendations.
“They just wanted to know if we were talking about issues to do with white privilege or institutional racism. Were you on side for this or not? That’s all they wanted to know. And if you were not, then you were cancelled.”
Following the Government’s decision last week to accept a number of his recommendations, he said he felt vindicated.
But now Free Speech Union chief Toby Young has written to both the University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Shearer West, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The correspondence, seen by the Mail on Sunday, suggests that Dr. Sewell, who runs a charity helping black children get into higher education, had been sidelined as he “voiced views which, in the minds of some, black people ought not to hold”.
Mr. Young pointed to a number of people given honorary degrees by Nottingham despite being mired in controversy.
They included King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand – “despite his alleged collusion with far-Right militias” – Liu Xiaoming, China’s former UK ambassador who “dismissed reports of Uighur camps as fake news”, and ex-Malaysian prime minister and convicted money launderer Najib Razak.
Worth reading in full.
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Funny how free speech works — it seems to only be allowed if you say the right thing.
“Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam will become the University of Nottingham’s next Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences. He will take up the Executive Board-level role on his return to the university when he steps down as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer (DCMO) for Health Protection in England.
Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam said: “My time as DCMO has been the most challenging of my professional career, especially the Covid response. We all wish Covid had never happened. Notwithstanding, it has been the greatest privilege of my professional career to have served the people of the UK during this time.”
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/professor-sir-jonathan-van-tam-to-become-pro-vice-chancellor-for-medicine-health-sciences
“We all wish Covid had never happened” – still, lined your pockets matey, didn’t it!
We all wish Covid had never happened. Notwithstanding, it has been the greatest privilege of my professional career to have served the people of the UK during this time.
Without duckheads like Van-Tam, COVID had never happened. So, he had the great privilege to serve me by declaring that I must not leave my flat unless it was in order to do something to goverment considered essential and that I must not talk to or otherwise meet another human being for months on end? Come here thee so that I can properly thank you.
Glasgow Kiss, Belfast Confetti or a normal John Bull tap-the-claret?
…to a generous helping of Vaccine Induced Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome. (Joke?)
Well, thanks JVT for the VAIDS and all your other hard work or maybe I’m reading this article from:
https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/03/20/gov-canada-data-triple-vaccinated-have-a-i-d-s/
all wrong.
Be great if June Raine from our revered but strangely silent MHRA outfit could pronounce on this before holding down kicking and screaming five-year-olds preoccupies our safeguarding angels further.
Booster anyone?
We all wish the parents of Jonathan Van Tam had never met.
Jonathan Van Tam, the turd who warned the public not to blow it, as if the response to Covid was the fault of the public behaving wrongly.
“We all wish the parents of Jonathan Van Tam had never met.”
Being reasonable he is an ugly ducker.
There was no way that Dr Sewell was going to get away with a report declaring this country was not “institutionally racist.” Dr Sewell clearly does not understand that this is in our very DNA.
How dare a black man, and an educated one to boot have the nerve to conclude that this country is not racist. It would appear Dr Sewell has forgotten his place and is punching above his weight.
Of course, looked at another way, the University of Nottingham and its slim-witted vice Chancellor might just be seeking controversy and notoriety for the sake of it. Or perhaps this is plain old publicity seeking from a hooray wokist- yah – non entity trying to ingratiate himself with somebody or outfit with money to burn.
Whatever the truth this is despicable.
Nottingham university award him his PhD then object when he uses it.
Funny old world.
Racism is seeing race as an issue when it is not.
This is how most universities work these days …
Otherwise known as forced learning. The objective being to pass exams, not to learn.
Sounds rather like the forthcoming ‘Online Harms Bill’ going through Parliament…
If this wasn’t so AWFUL, it’d be HILARIOUS!
I wonder how many of Dr.Sewell’s critics have done anything to help black children into higher education?
Given the company Dr Sewell would then be keeping with his honourary award, if I were him, I’d turn it down anyway. Besides, as Emerald Fox has said, they’ve just offered JVT a top job, so IMHO they don’t have much sense.
Clearly Tony Sewell needs to be cancelled with the utmost vigour. How dare he contradict the settled views of our pasty-faced academics – those who rarely venture out into the real world and have no other means to feel good about themselves than to accuse everyone else of racism or of not being politically correct.
It’s obvious that rewarding school leavers for examination achievements to the point that they ultimately become life-long academics, permanently holed up with similar types, only produces farcically arrogant people who have never had any real life. About time they were all taken down a peg or two.
I suppose he should be grafeul that they didn’t do a ‘Biden’ on him by saying if you ain’t a leftist then you ain’t black…
What It seems to me when digging down to the route course of people who insist that the UK is institutionally racist seem to offer only examples of speech that someone has said to them and they don’t like. The UK does not have current issues with barring people from say jobs, hotels, pubs or anywhere else just because of their skin colour or does it have any segregation.
If the UK was as bad as people say then for example david lammy would never have been able to become an MP, Marcus Rashford would not be a world class footballer on a significant amount of money per week, Lewis Hamilton would not have been allowed to be a f1 driver and the above Dr sewell would never have been able to achieve his position. I could point to examples of my own experiences where I have worked within jobs that had managers or supervisors who were black etc.
Yes the UK has its problems as does any country, but Institutional racism is not one of them as you are not barred because of skin colour.
Interesting point. In Monaco’s very own British Jehu, does having a white mother and black father make you obliged to take up black cudgels and despise or disavow the white bit of your heritage? I guess it depends on the current fashions, as did flares, spinzips, hula hoops to nowadays trends and wokery.
Sounds like a “just one drop” rule?
Lewis Hamilton is proof that F1 has no place for homophobes
Nottingham University has an overseas campus in China, that bastion of free speech and Human Rights. Perhaps they have learnt not to spurn the hand that feeds them? Always follow the money.
You gotta love that Yn…
“Liu Xiaoming, China’s former UK ambassador who ‘dismissed reports of Uighur camps as fake news’ ”
I know a very intelligent person, unconnected with any state, who similarly rejects the line about the Chinese government’s alleged crimes against the Uighurs. I suspect he may well be wrong, but it’s good to have an open mind.
Has anyone actually read the report? I speed read it then went back to some parts, it’s really quite good, I’m not sure why I was surpised by that, but I was.
The section I’ll example, because I find the the term “white privillage” particularly offensive comes from “The language of race” starting on page 33, they say:
These are the most interesting statistics, often obscured by the use of percentages:
The stuff on policing is particularly good too, I could pull all sorts out but I’d be here all day.
Full report can be found here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974507/20210331_-_CRED_Report_-_FINAL_-_Web_Accessible.pdf
This is not about real-world discrimination or disadvantages. It is ultimatively about affirmative action style policies, ie, people who demand privileged access to institutional resources and positions because of some group they happen to belong to. Poor and relatively uneducated white people in northern England are going to get into good civil service jobs in London. But (some) university educated people of non-white skin colour want that to count as additional merit when applying for such a position.
I dunno tbh, I’m pretty much insulated from it all having escaped inner city Manchester by 18yo. I can’t say I’ve ever seen an example of racism in real life, tho I’ve seen two examples of people accusing others of it in an attempt to escape wrongdoing.
Really? I can’t see it myself, I can’t see poor uneducated people of any background being put above anyone with a degree. It may happen, I dunno, I just can’t see it.
I skipped the not I meant to place in this sentence.
are going to get into
Should of course have been are not going to get into :-(.
It’s about using a false sense of guilt to shake down some gullible people over race.
The overwhelming majority of these institutionally disadvantaged people who are not British come from other commonwealth countries and hence, have a right to vote in local and general elections. I (and millions of other people) don’t. In theory, I could become a British citizen via naturalization but that’s a cumbersome, expensive and degrading process: Reportedly, I’d have (for instance) to memorize lists of British TV and sport celebrities, something I couldn’t care less about as I don’t have and don’t want a TV, and pass an official exam demonstrating this. Lastly, as Germany doesn’t allow dual-nationality except for other EU countries, I’d also have to give up my German citizienship for that, something I’m not going to do under any circumstance as that’s about who I am and not about which kind of official document would be most advantageous to posess. This is presumably part of my white privilege as no such demands are made on Indians, Caribeans and most Africrans.
Indeed though to be fair India doesn’t allow dual citizenship
That’s no problem in this respect: As I know all too well because of the EU referendum, every citizen of a commonwealth country who can legally enter the UK, even temporary visa are good enough for this, has a right to vote in all British elections.
I did not realise that, thanks for the info
Seems a bit uneven
Most people from the Caribbean aren’t from Commonwealth countries: Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the 4 most populous and which account for 87% of the Caribbean population, aren’t.
Most Africans also don’t live in Commonwealth countries, I reckon about 60%.
But I agree they shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
And neither should you.
You are not agreeing with me because I didn’t write anything about which kind of people who are legally resident in the UK and thus, obliged to pay for its upkeep, should or shouldn’t have a right to democratic representation. I wrote something about social/ institutional privileges people who claim to be systematically disadvantaged often have while those whom they basically consider to oppressors don’t. I’m supposed to be privileged (and supposed to feel guilty for that) because what’s supposed to be my skin colour but I don’t have a right to vote. In contrast to this, the people who claim to be systematically oppressed usually have this right.
Tony Sewell’s report is amazing, it tells it how it really is. I will admit I expected a black wash and I think the vested interests / Leftie nutcases did as well. The guy is one of very, very few in higher office who has 100% integrity. His suggestions are spot on. Nottingham only withdrew the offer because he didn’t write what they wanted to hear. There seems to be an en masse aversion to the truth over the last 10 years. Thank heavens for DailySceptic, you, myself and Tony Sewell.
Always happy to plug Andrew Lawrence in the guise of his woke alter ego, Gideon Micropenis, on this topic:
https://youtu.be/i-9VD5D2rzQ
Russia Mod: Briefing on analysis of documents related to US military and biological activities in Ukraine
http://thesaker.is/russia-mod-briefing-on-analysis-of-documents-related-to-us-military-and-biological-activities-in-ukraine/
We believe that components of biological weapons were created on the territory of Ukraine
Here is a document dated March 6, 2015, confirming the Pentagon’s direct participation in the financing of military biological projects in Ukraine.
From our point of view, the interest of US military biologists is due to the fact that these pathogens have natural foci both on the territory of Ukraine and in Russia, and their use can be disguised as natural outbreaks of diseases.
The documents received by the Russian Ministry of Defence indicate that research in this area is systematic and has been conducted since at least 2009 under the direct supervision of specialists from the United States within the framework of projects P-382, P-444 and P-568.
During the implementation of these projects, six families of viruses (including coronaviruses) and three types of pathogenic bacteria (pathogens of plague, brucellosis and leptospirosis) were identified. This is due to the main characteristics of these pathogens that make them favourable for the purposes of infection: resistance to drugs, rapid speed of spread from animals to humans, etc.
https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/svg/25ab.svgIt is necessary to note a number of documents confirming the transfer of bioassays selected in Ukraine to the territory of third countries, including Germany, Great Britain, Georgia.
In addition, attention is drawn to the fact of a sharp increase in cases of tuberculosis caused by new multi-resistant strains among citizens living in Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics in 2018. These data are confirmed by specialists of Rospotrebnadzor. During the mass outbreak recorded in the area of Peski settlement, more than 70 cases of the disease were detected, which ended in a rapid fatal outcome. This may indicate a deliberate infection, or an accidental leakage of the pathogen from one of the biolabs located on the territory of Ukraine.
My wife and I are Nottingham Graduates from the 1970’s, in an era where student politics with rent strikes, anti-apartheid, protest were common. This recent cancellation is a disgrace but echoes societies drift where virtue signalling is worn as a badge by those who condemn but do not contribute. The Vice Chancellor should immediately be suspended without pay until he can demonstrate that he has not harmed the education of his students by failing to promote academic discussion.
If he thinks Britain is racist then why doesn’t he eff off somewhere more suitable?
Dear Doctor Sewell,
You have earned your PhD. You do not have to wait for it to be ‘gifted’ by an institution which has become ‘woke’!
When you are ready (I hope not for many more years) to retire – this will be the best time of your life.
Regards… Judith
PS. By the way – I noticed that your new VC is going to be JVT – who has held to the Govt narrative for the past two years. Please stay away from him!