One of the unfortunate side-effects of free speech is that students endlessly waffle about its parameters, and who or what we should ban from campus. Despite all the recent debates, students still seem to have missed the coming of the new Counter-terrorism Bill, which could see your tutor forced to spy on you and report any ‘radicalisation’ to the Home Office.
In the bill, universities have a legal duty to prevent people being drawn into ‘extremism’, and the Home Office will be able to get court orders to enforce compliance. This means if your society books a controversial speaker, especially one opposed to the prevailing political consensus, the University may be legally obliged to shut down the debate. The risk of this is particularly high for Islamic speakers, those who are critical of US and UK foreign policy, and activists on sensitive topics like Palestine.
The potential impact of such legislation is limitless, as our tutors may have to decide what ‘extremism’ entails. The former Vice-Chancellor of Salford University asked whether the new obligation could be “used against opponents of fracking or any radical opposition to the status quo?” The answer is a definitive yes. The state has already used existing powers to monitor groups like Cambridge Defend Education.
There has been some pushback already. Students’ unions at UCL, LSE, Queen Mary’s, SOAS, KCL, Cardiff and Kingston have been submitting emergency motions to take a stand against the bill. The University and Colleges’ Union has put out a briefing, while the NUS has stated its opposition in clear terms.
Controversial views should be heard and contested. The government should not have an undefined power to ban ‘extremists’, which could prohibit anything from Israeli Apartheid Week to a debate on the role of armed resistance in international law. If you got angry when Brendan O’Neill was prevented from speaking in an abortion debate because of a Cuntry Living-inspired demonstration, imagine if it had been the state doing that.
Next time it could be. But it won’t be the likes of Brendan O’Neill being banned: it will be ‘the usual suspects’ and victims of government counter-terror policy: Muslim students and those who challenge the status quo.
