The student union of Leeds University has suspended a third-year philosophy and theology student, Connie Shaw, for what were declared “gender critical” views. Shaw’s transgression was to discuss her concerns over transgender ideology. We have previously seen student governments or bodies engage in such anti-free speech activities. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the school administration to maintain free-speech protections on campuses.
Shaw wrote an article, “Gender Madness at the University of Leeds,” questioning the university’s “gender expression fund.” She also interviewed Irish comedian Graham Linehan, an outspoken critic of transgender policies.
She promptly received a “notice of suspension” after she allegedly brought the radio station into “disrepute” because of her “social media activity,” according to The Telegraph.
We have previously discussed how free speech is in a free fall in the United Kingdom. This latest case seems to build on prior moves against “toxic ideologies.”
The cases out of Great Britain are chilling and mounting. A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”
We also discussed Nicholas Brock, 52, who was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire.
While most of us find Brock’s views repellent and hateful, they were confined to his head and his room. Yet, Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement: “I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”
Lodder lambasted Brock for holding Nazi and other hateful values:
“[i]t is clear that you are a right-wing extremist, your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography which you have studied and appeared to share with others…”
Even though Lodder agreed that the defendant was older, had limited mobility, and “there was no evidence of disseminating to others,” he still sent him to prison for holding extremist views.
After the sentencing Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), warned others that he was going to prison because he “showed a clear right-wing ideology with the evidence seized from his possessions during the investigation….We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.”
“Toxic ideology” also appears to be the target of Ireland’s proposed Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) law. It covers the possession of material deemed hateful. The law is a free speech nightmare. The law makes it a crime to possess “harmful material” as well as “condoning, denying or grossly trivialising genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace.” The law expressly states the intent to combat “forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law.”
Clearly, Shaw did not confine her views to herself. She wanted to engage and challenge others. She wanted to test her ideas against those who believe strongly in transgender values. Instead of an exchange of differing viewpoints, she received a suspension from further expression by the student group.
The fact that students took the action in Leeds should not change the significance for the free speech community. Universities often allow students to carry out anti-free speech agendas in the name of student self-governance. However, students come to our institutions to learn in an environment of free speech and self-exploration. Administrators cannot simply shrug and walk away as students seek to silence dissenting or opposing viewpoints.
The British government has created a culture of speech criminalization and censorship. This culture infects every aspect of life, from government to the media to academia. It even distorts the view of a group of students engaged in journalism who seek to punish the expression of opposing views. Rather than view this as a great opportunity for a passionate debate, the students prefer to silence or suspend one side in a growing debate around the world. In the ultimate doublespeak, they are enforcing a strict rule of intolerance in the name of tolerance.
I understand that the students have strong views opposing those of Shaw. Those are counter views that should be given the same opportunity of expression. Let’s have the debate rather than focusing on how to silence one side.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
We are in the last gasps of modern leftism.
Reform UK is now leading all polls in the UK with the Tories in 2nd.
Melloni is PM in Italy.
France is slowly capitulating to Le Penne and National Rally.
Germany is trying all possible Chickanerie to avoid a government that includes Afd,
Across Europe and even the world this woke left wing nonsense is failing.
You are delusional. These are speed bumps on the road to world globalism which is actually outlined as inevitable in prophecy. so I’ll stick with believing scripture that globalism will succeed over the short sighed cheerleading over a few bumps in the road. Trump is ignoring the pandemic which he owns and soon there will be another where everything he does will be undone in less than a week just like before. It’s sad but the it’s literally the delusional thinking such as yours that ultimately will usher in globalism. They aren’t beaten, not by a long shot.
Scripture does foretell an end to humanity as we know it with a judgement of all, both living and dead. It seems counterproductive to focus on a delusion that all will be made right by us. Rather, the focus should be on Truth, regardless of how events play out today.
Xi Jinping owns the pandemic, not Trump.
Two bits says you are wrong.
The left uses force, because they would lose any debate.
Their views are condemned by reality.
Violating the laws of nature does not result in incarceration,
It results in failure.
JohnSay: A quick deviation inspired by your post. Yesterday I was having a meal with a friend, who plays Euchre. He was telling me about being on the winning team, something about a 10 card and a 4 card, and when his team was so far ahead they needed another card, they reached over and took one from the losing team. Losing team said, “hey, wait, that’s our card,” to which his team responded, “Oh, sorry, we just thought you weren’t using it anyway.”
I burst out laughing, hope I am recounting it correctly as I do not play euchre.
Perhaps, now that the veil is partially removed in America (plus what Bondi and Patel may uncover) the indigenous Brits will wake up and save their venerable heritage at some point. I am wondering if it isn’t too late.
B
Orwell knew his countrymen quite well.
Reminder Rome destroyed itself!
correct and we are following suit and we can thank the republicans for never following through on holding people accountable.
so Orwell didn’t write fiction in 1984.
it is very clear that todays’ globalist/democrats are quite similar to north korean, China 1970’s, USSR, Germany 1930’s etc type regimes….propaganda forces you to reject reality!
Globalist are backed to DESTROY THE WEST
Soros, China, etc want this path!
I WON’T ACCEPT other people’s insanity! TEST the DNA. That is your gender now and a million years from now when they find your bones!
Anyone telling me I have to accept lies…should be IMMEDIATELY removed from power!
Anonymous 6:56 AM – has an interesting take on history. Actually most of the plagues that went through the Indians of North America occurred after DeSoto in the Southeast and Coronado in the southwest passed through in the 1500’s. English and American explorers found numerous abandoned and empty villages all through North America, especially in the Southeast, when they started pushing through the area.
If we took Anonymous 5:56 AM seriously then we would have to accept that religious cultists from China pushed west and carried Bubonic Plague to Europe and caused all those deaths instead of fleas, Rats and lack of Cats. Almost a jingle.
how do you know this….given Indians have NO written records. Many of the north american largest indian cities were empty long before BTW!
Eg https://www.history.com/news/native-american-cahokia-chaco-canyon
The records of the Spanish explorers passed through those areas and kept journals of the numerous villages and people. By the middle 1600s the British moved far into the interior with their American colonists and they also kept Journals (in English actually) and recorded village after village empty and sparse populations whereas the Spanish reported large populations. The larger cities talked about predate all of this by a few hundred years. Those were also more in the upper midwest whereas the SE and SW were different cultures but there was contact between them. European journals mainly and observation. Multiple histories I have read mentioned this.
We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.
Of course they cannot see that they are the apex predator of toxic ideologies.
Thank you, Olly
We give “great” Britain far more credit than it deserves at this point in history. It has dwindled to a husk of what once it was. Americans always think about Churchill when we think of England, the blitz and all that. They abandoned such pretenses almost immediately after the war. The only thing they have not lost is that absurd sense of self-satisfied superiority. We continue to show them a misplaced sentimental deference based on what they once were, rather than what they have made of themselves. We should look across the North Atlantic with pity now, as more of a cautionary tale than something to be admired. They have painted themselves into a corner and lack the sense or the will to stop painting.
cionnath, here here! We do think of Churchill when we think of Britain but sadly THEY don’t think of Churchill, they think of the poor Muslims living there and trying to erase 100o years of history. Unfortunately we have no choice but to let that history be erased for those too dumb or incurious to read history books.
Churchill, the greatest figure of the entire 20th century, would be arrested in today’s England.
The case of Harry Miller is interesting
He is a retired British law enforcement officer who was visited by police for thought crimes. The crime? A Facebook post. He had the tenacity to fight a David and Goliath battle and won. Now he is a free speech advocate.
Hopefully, this mass insanity will break as the fair minded people around the world are waking up from a stupor. The DEI, transgender propaganda (to name only a few topics) has been forced to the masses as a means of mind control. Deceit is a lie cleverly woven into a truth.
The antidote to gaslighting and propaganda is freedom of speech and the free flow of information and debate. In a few words, truth and facts. That is why the gaslighter fears free speech.
I want to see the hospital where they take the injured transgenders harmed by the article and social media.
Face it, the aholes in the US, like Brennan, the DNC, and the commies have all put pressure on the UK and EU to oppress populists and non-conformers, this is wht Leeds is doing this, they are part of the network of apparatchiks paid to act as they do.
If you think this has anything to do with the mentally ill gender dysphoria sufferers and the wannabes, you are sadly wrong. This is about the pressure aholes in the USA are putting on the UK/EU to force unis and social media (which creeps into USA) to comply with their lefty central authoritarian dreams.
The fragility and latent anger of transgender advocates are in high profile: ideological intolerance, verbal aggressiveness, and (often) physical violence. The best response is compassion bathed in mirth.
“The best response is compassion bathed in mirth”, but I am out of compassion.
Laughing works
This is remarkable. It used to be that campus administrators would enforce orthodoxy on students. Now it is students persecuting students with others hoping the administration will offer protection.
The spirit of our left-moving times : shut ’em up. As student bodies move left, administrations are forced to protect students – and the school’s reputation – against stifling oppression. It speaks volumes for reality that the crowd that “defends your right to protest” is doing quite the opposite, and has been for some time.
Why are we in NATO, spending our money to defend countries like Great Britain???
Geez floyd, you sure have a sharp insight.
If you don’t know why the US is in Nato, then you should explore that question.
Geez what a silly hillbilly.
Perhaps you could explain why it is a silly question.
The word ally ring a bell? Joint protection from the Communists instigated after the Potsdam meeting. Russia was quite a behemoth, a giant bear intent on devouring Europe.
Just because a country doesn’t fulfill your expectations of freedom doesn’t mean you can get rid of them. Or in Trumps case badmouth an ally, which I find amusing. But those people (Europeans) take themselves far too seriously – different mentality and unbridled cultural arrogance.
If you don’t know why, you should educate yourself. It’s a long complex history post WWII, established in 1949.
Incidentally the same year Orwell published. Come on, the Brits can’t be all bad.
75 years ago. Are we in any pact to defend us from Japan??? From Italy??? From Germany??? From Vietnam???
FWIW, it’s the year 2025 now. Let Europe defend itself.
Perhaps we still recognize that Communist aggression is still real, enhanced by Muslim.
Floyd, China is in ascendance and we need allies to counter the China-Russia-N Korea-Iran Pact. It is too bad that we need allies, but we do.
We need to FORCE Europe and even Japan to radically increase their military spending and to do it NOW.
Amen
Fugggem
George Washington warned us 200+ years ago to be friendly to all nations but entangled with none.
The Brits are not all bad., but they are headed in an orwellian direction.
But there is hope. Reform UK is now leading in the Polls – if there was an election today Labor would be wiped out, Nigel Farage would be the PM and the Tories would be the opposition party.
So, what is the prospect of a new election? What forces may push Labor to call one? How much strength is Reform deemed to have? Where do the Conservatives stand in public support?
The Brits are not all bad, it’s just their teeth…
The British gene pool that favored the evolution of thought was drained by 1787
1787? Gene pool? Americans, back then, as today are the dumbest SOB’s on the planet.
But what about 1620 when the religious zealots stormed the new world and within a few years spread smallpox and violence among the locals. heck, they even mamanged to start a world war.
Anonymous 6:56AM-The spread of disease is always facilitated by isolated populations that had never faced the disease before. The western hemisphere was culturally and immunologically isolated from the rest of humanity once the connections with Europe and Asia disappeared in the Artic and the Bering land bridge in the west of Alaska. Except for small populations that crossed the oceans. Once there was a mass movement it was inevitable that the new world would suffer with it’s lack of immunologic preparedness when the exposure to populations that had dealt with multiple plagues and diseases that had never been seen in the Western hemisphere came to pass. There are plenty of references to support this. Does not matter if you are a religious zealot or just seeking treasure , you’re a vector. We’re basically all vectors in the right circumstances. Either way.Europeans going to Africa died like flies compared the the Africans already there. Europeans colonies in America had no real preparedness to handle weather that they never faced in Europe and nearly died out. It works both ways. Zealot or not.
There you go again playing the medical expert card.
So what does your comment have to do with the preceding gene pool comment?
That world war comemnt, I think he means either King Phillips War or the American Revolution. But both are applicable.
Anonymous8:57AM-No real sense in responding to an asinine statement. Gene pool is one thing. Immunocompetence is another with some obvious overlap. His statements lack coherence and clarity.
Read the National Geographic article about the introduction of the earthworm into the forests of the New World and the effects thereof. Reportedly brough in as garden soil serving dual purpose as ballast for the ships. James Town…the first invasive species!
“Americans, back then and, as today (sic) are the dumbest SOB’s on the planet”. Well Mr. “Anonymous” I have two questions, a) which people are smarter, is it the French, the Brits, the Chinese led by communists, any Arab country, any African country, any of the many nations in South America? Which land has the smart people? b) Why don’t you move to where the smart people live?
It speaks well of the British if, in fact, Labor is in disrepute. Are the Scots sticking with them?
Wait, suspended? Have Trump wave a wand?
Think anon, you make no sense.
Its not even 6:30 and the sillies are already spouting nonsense.
Are you able to fog glass ?
If you have been alive this past week – or even since Nov. 5th. You would have noted that the rest of the world may not like the US, but it is going to do as we ask.
The rising popularity of Reform UK at the expense of Labor, with Reform now leading the polls. with Labor a distance 3rd, is a reflection fo the fact that the people of the UK are unhappy with the woke nonsense that afflicts their country.
Farage is the british Trump and will be PM the next time the UK has an election.
Nor is what is occuring in the UK unique – though the increasingly successful rising oposition to woke left wing nonsense throughout Europe and the world, is not homogeneous – the “extreme right Afd”, National Rally, and Reform UK have very little in common except opposition to the idiotic woke left, but there are an absolute reflection that the left is losing badly – EVERYWHERE.
“Let’s have the debate rather than focusing on how to silence one side.”
Easier said than done, Professor. The last time I tried that the response was: “How can we debate genocide? There is no debating fascist Nazi views.”
The Brits were warned what they had coming in 1949, a roadmap to facism.
The special relationship with Great Britain needs to be suspended until these policies change. As they eventually will, when the minority government of “two-tier” Kier and his extreme left supporters is toppled.