Knighthood in jeopardy

Ratty is in the Guardian. He attacks the Government’s policy of restricting the freedom of certain points of view to be expressed at universities, in particular those of Islamic speakers. Most of us would support this stance against Cameron’s “hate speakers” campaign, yet Ratty is somewhat selective in his attitude towards academic freedom. As a comment below the article notes (see below), such freedoms are only granted to those he agrees with. The rest can whistle in the wind.

I’m sure the VC draws a distinction between ‘allowing’ free speech and actually ‘acting’ on it. Remember, this is the same VC who is behind the university’s current review of staffing and processes. Staff were invited to make comments, but judging by the opinions I’ve heard among the staff, the management team’s view of free speech is that it’s a great idea and fine PR so long as you also have the right to totally ignore it afterwards.