DAILY MAIL COMMENT: How bigotry festers on Britain's campuses
Universities and their student bodies are only too ready to ban controversial speakers from their campuses, or 'cancel' academics whose views don't conform to the woke credo of the Left.
They do so in the name of creating 'safe spaces' for students. Yet when faced with a genuine threat to safety, they do little or nothing to stop it.
We report today how student societies at some of our most renowned higher education institutions have been glorifying Hamas since they massacred 1,400 Israelis in cold blood.
A student union officer at Sussex described the attack as 'beautiful'. A Left-wing group at Imperial College London endorsed 'intifada until victory'. And at Oxford and Leeds, societies called on students to join pro-Palestine protests in the wake of the Hamas atrocities.
They are of course, entitled to criticise Israel. But when that criticism develops into support for terrorists and naked anti-Semitism, Jewish students are placed at risk and the authorities must act.
Several vice-chancellors have warned their students that the glorification of violence won't be tolerated. The problem is that they have been too lax for too long.
At too many universities, cancel culture, deplatforming, assaults on free speech and the harassment of anyone with socially or politically conservative views are now so rife they have become the norm.
The Government has ordered a zero-tolerance approach and swift action against 'any society or student that promotes acts of terror or anti-Semitic rhetoric'. Will it have any effect at all? The omens are not good.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Suella Braverman has issued a warning to those who incite anti-Semitism and mock the murder of Jewish people. 'The police are coming for you,' she said.
But are they really? Experience tells us they are much more enthusiastic about investigating those who offend the trans community online than tackling radical Islam on the streets.
![Home Secretary Suella Braverman has issued a warning to those who incite anti-Semitism and mock the murder of Jewish people](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/16/00/76595921-0-image-a-68_1697412919338.jpg)
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has issued a warning to those who incite anti-Semitism and mock the murder of Jewish people
It's surely time for a reset. As we wait with foreboding for the next chapter in this new Israeli war on terror, we also need to take a hard look at our own values and how we protect and preserve them.
Racism and bigotry are wrong in all their manifestations. They must be challenged wherever they raise their ugly heads.
This is especially true at universities, where our next generation of leaders is being educated.
Keir's tax raid folly
No one could accuse the teachers' unions of being on the right of the political spectrum. Their leaders range from merely anti-Tory to positively Marxist.
It's also true to say they are not natural fans of private education. Indeed Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, likened it to apartheid.
Yet even some of the comrades are now warning Sir Keir Starmer that his tax raid on private schools could cost jobs, reduce teachers' pension rights and land the already overburdened state sector with many thousands of extra pupils.
![Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, likened private education to apartheid](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/16/00/76595939-0-image-a-70_1697413025516.jpg)
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, likened private education to apartheid
Labour claims that imposing 20 per cent VAT on private school fees would raise up to £1.7billion a year, which would then be channelled into state education.
But this would be more than offset by the numbers of children having to leave the private sector, either because their parents couldn't afford the fees, or their schools had to close.
This measure was always more about throwing red meat to the class warriors on Labour's Left than constructive reform.
But it is ill-conceived and will do real damage to the lives of pupils and livelihoods of teachers. Sir Keir should listen to the unions and think again.
- The original version of the article mistakenly referred to University College London, instead of Imperial College London. The article has been amended to correct this.