Off Topic Political Debate

No, not normally. The problem is this one of a large and growing number of incidents where politically motivated groups, normally left wingers, are censoring speakers who they do not agree with. Most if not all, potential speaker's contents would not be breaking any laws in the UK.

 

We are a debating society Leo

 

OK - I avoided saying what I really thought about the level of this debate - it seemed to have descended to schoolboy level. ( I wanted to avoid anything that could be taken as criticism of a personal nature). When we start throwing in "censorship exists all around us" it is not really very focussed is it? To me that is just muddying the waters. We can do better than that as we know that all societies are selective but the point about censorship is a direct one. I do not care why the case of the student censorship was raised. It has been raised several times in the last year or more and is a bad thing. Student bodies should be the most open forums for listening to and challenging people. When I was at Uni we went overboard to get people we believed to be controversial so that we could challenge them. It is a sad state of affairs if today's students have lost that desire and turn instead to banning people.

 

Good post, students should thoroughly welcome the opportunity to debate, and test their wit, against well seasoned, prepared politicians and commercial figures.

 

Ok. I was just making a point that censorship can mean different things to different people. I have not justified what these students did - it was immature, end of story. But does this happen so very often ? There are hundreds of student debates and I guess that some of them get very hot but are the few cases of this sort really newsworthy , other than that the writer has a political point to make.

 

Whatever anybody thinks about the politics of Rees Mogg he is extremely sharp in his precise analysis and response of often difficult questions thrown at him.

I'd like to take him to a soul gig on Saturday but he would have to dress down a bit, jeans and tee shirt de rigueur.

 

Serious enough for the education minister to intervene as reported in the Guardian.

Jo Johnson to tell universities to stop 'no-platforming' speakers ...

 

I hope it is as you imply - quite rare. When I was a student we invited Enoch Powell to speak. His views were considered outrageous to most students (and others) but he came - he spoke eloquently and well - and we totally disagreed with him and subjected him to intense questioning - but at the end he was given a polite round of applause. To me that is how things should be done. I would like to think Jacob Rees-Mogg would get such treatment today - but somehow doubt it.

 

This appears to me to be an across the board screening of speakers rather than a left wing conspiracy SH. Peter Tatchell is from the Green Party. I do not know for sure but speaking in Universities is surely by invitation only - nobody can force themselves on such institutions.

 

It was, as you said, by invitation - surely Universities reserve the right to invite who they want.

 

The student body tends to invite speakers - they do not invite themselves. I think there has been a recent tendency for factions - probably sometimes left and sometimes right - to then try to get them banned. To me left right is immaterial - censorship is wrong against anyone (legal)

 

The problem is guests are being invited to challenge views but certain student groups are trying to ban them.

I've yet to see any right wing groups involved.

 

You appear to have ignored the fact that Peter Tatchell was one of those involved - allowing that he is in the Green Party, and has been involved in many civil rights campaigns he is unlikely to have been banned by left wingers.

 

Not ignored at all. I'm not saying all problem group are left wingers, just most of them.

 

Cologne your call for a bit more censorship was heard load and clear in Bristol tonight.

Jacob Rees-Mogg admits 'I'm a complete weed' after getting caught up in scuffle at university event

 

even loud and clear!!

 

One of these days you are going to actually debate properly without feeling the need to import your comic material the whole time.

 

A big thank you must be sent out to those cowardly, masked, so called 'anti fascists' who tries to prevent Jacob Rees Mogg from speaking at the Bristol University. They have succeeded in raising his profile in a very positive light after the way he handled himself during the fracas. Playing down the incident he added: 'A similar thing happened in Manchester when people tried to shout me down'.

Hopefully Corbyn will ensure these alt-left Antifa extremists are not part of Momentum group currently infiltrating the Labour Party.

 

For goodness sake.... did you by any chance go to University???

It just doesn't work like that.

I must say after 20 years working at a northern Univ., it is quite refreshing to see student engagement with politics in any form.

We actually want our young people to be politically aware and have some agency in our democratic processes. I think we have seen worse at Oxbridge debating societies.

If you think Rees Mogg did not have any responisbility for this then it is worth reflecting... It actually makes a refreshing change for polticians to engage with a critical public, rather than orchestrated TV shows with planted questioners or small invited pro- audiences.

Bring it all out into the open I say...

 

We are talking here about a group of students (I presume that, depending on whether it is an open campus) and has nothing to do with Corbyn or any other political grouping. Would you blame Watford FC. for the activities of a couple of their fans ? I do not know if you have ever been active in politics, or ever canvassed for a party at election time. I have and I know that occasional abuse is part and parcel of it.