Julian Mann: Is Labour Bending to US Pressure on Free Speech?

Labour’s General Election victory last July filled me with pessimism about the future of free speech in the UK. But has there been a change in the Government’s attitude to free speech as a result of US pressure? An unlikely statement from Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson this week suggests this may be the case.

Dr Will Jones: Labour U-Turns Over University Free Speech as it Brings Back Tory Law....

Labour U-Turns Over University Free Speech as it Brings Back Tory Law – But Removes its “Teeth”

Labour has U-turned over university free speech as it brings back a Tory law clamping down on ‘woke’ cancel culture – but removes its “teeth” by dropping the ability of academics to sue their institutions. The Mail has more.

Dr James Kierstead: Repealing speech

For some time now free speech advocates in this country have been enviously following the passage of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act through the UK Parliament. The act gave teeth to the freedom of speech provisions in the 1986 Education Act by allowing students and academics whose free speech rights had been trampled on to seek redress though the courts, and also established a new ‘Free Speech Czar’ for English universities.