Freedom of speech in education

Evole · 3 Feb 2019 at 01:00

As long as its not clearly racist or discriminatory let people talk.

platinum87 · 3 Feb 2019 at 08:10

I am far too anti-social to go to anything that is not mandatory.

So i do not quite understand what you mean by safe spaces.

Energize · 4 Feb 2019 at 15:29

LabR@t said:
Do we need more robust freedom of speech laws in this country?

Absolutely, we must stop the zealot judges convicting people for jokes at any cost.

The Americans actually got this right by having a constitution that protects free speech far more than we have.

Oz!asM!dwinter · 4 Feb 2019 at 16:08

billysielu said:
The NUS is the problem here. It should be shut down.

Where would the future labour cabinet members get their CV work experience/references from?

satchef1 said:
Probably not a million miles from the truth.

Obviously I can't vouch for other universities, but at mine engagement with the SU is practically non-existant. It's easy to look at all this "safe space" stuff and assume that it's what the majority of young peolle are in to. But from what I've seen at least, it isn't. It's what the people in charge at the SU, and their mates, are in to. The vast majority just walk past and ignore it all.

Our SU is dead. They took out the bar. They took out the pool table. They took out the Xboxes and TVs. And they stopped doing food. Their idea of "fun" is a singalong to The Greatest Showman. They host this in the bar, where the optics are now filled with sugar-free orange squash...

We're now in "Feel Good February", which is possibly the 4th month since September where the focus has been on mental health. Yup, that's probably correct, as October was "Black History Month". I'm assuming next month it'll be "Mental Health March" or something.

Aside from the staff, there's maybe 2-3 students in the place at a time. The ground floor of the library is basically the new common room.

I wonder if that could be linked to the above? Assuming it's widespread (no idea if it is or not), sales of alcohol and food would have been a decent source of revenue. Instead, they're focussing on activities that don't generate revenue, and movie screenings which maybe generate a few hundred quid revenue per month.

Only reason I'm a member is because I live <5 mins from a Co-op and it gets me 10% off. The other student discount schemes (UniDays, StudentBeans and VoucherCodes Student) are better. I know quite a few people who aren't NUS members because they see no benefit any more.

What happened to the daily 1pm to 11pm cider binge-a-thon and 'get your free Nelson Mandela' event?
(mis-spent education 1988-1992 hull university Opto-electronics and Laser systems engineering B.Eng)

Randomface74 · 4 Feb 2019 at 16:50

Oz!asM!dwinter said:
Where would the future labour cabinet members get their CV work experience/references from?

2 birds, 1 stone.

h4rm0ny · 4 Feb 2019 at 17:55

This quote from the Telegraph article gave me a dark chuckle:

Trevor Phillips, who wrote the National Union of Students’ (NUS) original “no platforming” policy in the 1970s, said that it is now being used in an “ugly” and “authoritarian” way.

It's always and forever only a matter of time when you adopt powers of censorship and control to silence your opponents, until you find those same powers used against you.

h4rm0ny · 4 Feb 2019 at 17:57

Hades said:
It's pretty much bankrupt at the moment. They have had to let dozens of staff go. I think they got woke and went broke.

Spending too much money bankrolling people like Jess Bradley and his legal defence fund (allegedly - they keep refusing to confirm or deny it's them paying for it).

mmj_uk · 12 Feb 2019 at 15:09

A post h4rm0ny made in another thread:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/32502312

So as predicted it was all just lip service and all it takes is for tolerant liberals to threaten violence and they can effectively shut down speakers they disagree with or don't like.

RaohNS · 12 Feb 2019 at 15:16

No such thing as free speech in the UK. It was one of the things I refused to impart in my teaching days that one of the fundamental British values was free speech.

Energize · 13 Feb 2019 at 20:09

RaohNS said:
No such thing as free speech in the UK. It was one of the things I refused to impart in my teaching days that one of the fundamental British values was free speech.

This is true, "hate speech" laws and legislation like the obscene publications act attempt to censor and suppress freedom of expression at the most fundamental level.

[FnG]magnolia · 13 Feb 2019 at 20:20

RaohNS said:
No such thing as free speech in the UK. It was one of the things I refused to impart in my teaching days that one of the fundamental British values was free speech.

I would love to hear more about this if you can spare the time.

dowie · 13 Feb 2019 at 20:32

RaohNS · 14 Feb 2019 at 07:51

[FnG]magnolia said:
I would love to hear more about this if you can spare the time.

[FnG]magnolia · 14 Feb 2019 at 18:47

No sarcasm intended my dude, perhaps poor phrasing (ask me about incorrectly using commas, also the use of 'also')

Having said that - "I refused to impart in my teaching days"

Go on ...