The UK’s Labour government has announced plans to halt the implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, despite rising concerns about harassment faced by pro-life students. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson stated that she would “stop further commencement” of the Act just days before it was set to take effect, citing concerns about the administrative burden on educational institutions and the Office for Students. She also mentioned that options, including repeal, would be considered.
The Act, initially introduced by former Education Secretary Sir Gavin Williamson, requires universities, colleges, and student unions in England and Wales to safeguard free speech and academic freedom. It grants the Office for Students the power to investigate and penalize student unions that fail to comply with these requirements. Williamson criticized Labour’s decision, arguing that it demonstrates a disregard for free and open debate.
This move comes after a pro-life speaker at the University of Manchester needed police protection due to aggressive protests by pro-abortion demonstrators. Pro-life students at several universities have reported escalating harassment, including threats and intimidation.
A 2021 poll conducted by the Alliance of Pro-Life Students (APS) revealed that nearly 25% of pro-life students had faced threats or abuse, and 71.9% felt unable to express their views in academic settings. Additionally, 35% of students reported witnessing event cancellations due to speaker de-platforming.
A 2020 survey by ADF International found that 27% of students concealed their opinions to avoid negative consequences, highlighting a broader trend of event cancellations based on controversial speaker views.
How did we get here?
Whilst it is appreciated that there has been a rise in administrative burden upon the education sector in recent decades, the importance of needing to reverse the militant cancel culture cannot be underestimated. Cancel culture is propagated by the political Left as it serves their doctrines. The evidence is overwhelming in that cancellation only occurs when the doctrines of the Left are threatened. Apart from the fact that higher-level learning at its heart needs there to be open debate to advance learning, cancel culture is sinister as it fosters a permitted climate of fear and intimidation against those with non-Left views. Political strongholds in higher education used to be the preserve of a defined handful of notorious leftist institutes in the 60s and 70s. Now however, it appears all institutions in the West have been infiltrated by their leaven. The result is successive generations of graduates who willingly or unwillingly, feel compelled to embrace the ideologies of the militant Left. As a case in point, take a look at the scale of recent support shown for Hamas / pro-Palestine throughout all sections of society.
As discussed in another recent article (Teachers Under Siege: Expressing Millenia-old Christian Beliefs in Class Could Lead to Career Ruin), the foundation for Education in the West is Christian. Institutions were originally founded by Christians to explore the created world alongside a lifestyle of worship towards God. Integral to the Christian worldview is the concept of human dignity, of which free speech is a component. Nowhere in the Christian narrative are Christians encouraged to shut-down free speech.
What are the drivers of cancel culture?
Cancel culture springs into action when doctrines which are rooted in the Marxist approach are threatened. Ever since Marxists ideals were used as a basis for governing a country, they have repeatedly failed. They never produce the results that were promised. Freedom and prosperity are promised as an example, but tyranny and poverty are delivered. Removal of heathy sexual boundaries with the promise of liberation instead results in confusion, hurt, family breakup, unwanted pregnancies, paedophilia, sexual violence, sex trafficking, a lust for ever increasing perversion to satisfy an itch that never appears to subside is another example. As a consequence of this failure, Marxism needs to re-invent itself in order to propagate, and it needs to shut down its opposition. The reinvention of Marxism involves finding new oppressed / oppressor groups to pit against each other. Once the hostilities are established, the Elites then step in to save the day by seizing power. The shut-down-opposition-strategy always involves either controlling speech (what you can’t say and the words you are allowed to say), or shutting down speech altogether. In the West, the doctrine of political correctness, formed out of the left-leaning academic institutions of the US, is a key instigator of what has become cancel culture today. In short, where logic, debate, human experience and history disprove the ideals of Marxism, those unknowingly waving the banners of Marxism will militantly step in to shut down their opposition.
Given that we are in a season in the West whereby the Elites are facilitating a program of de-Christianisation via the Marxist approach, it is no surprise that anti-free speech is targeting Christian beliefs. Pro-life and the upholding of healthy sexual boundaries and identities are at the forefront of cancellation.
Moving forward
At What in the World is Going On, we are hopeful that as the West’s worldview is still governed by logic and reasoned thinking, supported by the human experience, the argument in support of free speech can be won. Being vocal about the failures of the new secular doctrines is a must. It is our mission and we hope that you too will step into the fight to reverse the insanity and get us back to our roots that have served us so well.