{"id":145543,"date":"2021-02-18T13:07:57","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T18:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=145543"},"modified":"2021-02-18T13:13:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T18:13:15","slug":"u-k-education-secretary-prioritizing-emotional-safety-over-free-speech-is-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-k-education-secretary-prioritizing-emotional-safety-over-free-speech-is-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"U.K. Education Secretary: Prioritizing \u2018Emotional Safety\u2019 Over Free Speech Is \u2018Dangerous\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-k-education-secretary-prioritizing-emotional-safety-over-free-speech-is-dangerous%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=145543&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Gavin-Williamson.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>In a report on free speech in higher education, the U.K. Secretary of State for Education decried the chilling effects of \u201ccancel culture\u201d on free speech.<\/p>\n<p>At the beginning of a free speech report presented to Parliament, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson penned a letter dubbing the current culture of \u201cemotional safety\u201d to be counterproductive. \u201cThere are some in our society who prioritize \u2018emotional safety\u2019 over free speech, or who equate speech with violence. This is both misguided and dangerous,\u201d Williamson said.<\/p>\n<p>The report cites a study from King\u2019s College in London that found that a quarter of students see violence as an acceptable response to speech they dislike. The same study found that 59 percent of \u201cConservative-supporting\u201d students said that they were reluctant to share their views on campus.<\/p>\n<p>Williamson claims that British society has turned a \u201cblind eye\u201d to the \u201ccreeping culture of censorship.\u201d \u201cA culture has been allowed to develop in which it is seen as acceptable, even virtuous, for an academic to sign an open letter that calls for another to be dismissed or defunded,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The report breaks down new laws that the education department believes will champion a newfound culture of free speech. The laws will provide a new legal avenue for those who have faced retribution for their speech, will widen and enhance academic freedom protections, and will require universities to set high standards for free speech codes.<\/p>\n<p>A growing body of evidence has shown that the current \u201ccancel culture\u201d is having a \u201cchilling effect\u201d on students and staff at universities who feel unable to express religious and political views without fear of retribution. The report also cites evidence that a minority of students and academics are having a disproportionate influence on censoring campus speech.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the report, the nation\u2019s largest student union organization, The National Union of Students, said that there is \u201cno evidence\u201d of a free speech crisis on campuses.<\/p>\n<p>The union\u2019s response appears antithetical to the many high-profile \u201ccancelations\u201d of professors and students, some of whom hold moderate-to-left-wing viewpoints.<\/p>\n<p>Selina Todd, a history professor at Oxford University, faced online threats and was uninvited to appear at the Oxford International Women\u2019s Festival after transgender activists pushed to have her removed for \u201ctransphobic\u201d comments. Jo Phoenix, a criminology professor at Open University, had a lecture at Essex University canceled by trans activists as well. The activists accused Phoenix of being a \u201ctransphobe\u201d for citing the safety concerns of putting trans women, who are biological men, in the same prisons as women.<\/p>\n<p>Other examples include Professor Noah Carl and Felix Ngole. Carl was dismissed as a research fellow at St. Edmund\u2019s College in Cambridge after sustained attacks from a politically-correct mob who disliked his articles expressing right-wing dogma on issues of race and immigration.<\/p>\n<p>Ngole was a social work student at Sheffield University. He was removed from his class after a peer snitched on him for saying that \u201cthe Bible and God identify homosexuality as a sin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williamson issued a final warning to those actively working to perpetuate cancel culture while denying its existence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose who have never known authorities that were not broadly aligned to their values should be more cautious: today\u2019s orthodoxy can become tomorrow\u2019s oppression, and powers granted today to silence ideological opponents will inevitably be turned against them in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a report on free speech in higher education, the U.K. Secretary of State for Education decried the chilling effects of \u201ccancel culture\u201d on free speech. At the beginning of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2181485,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Gavin-Williamson.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"U.K. Education Secretary: Prioritizing \u2018Emotional Safety\u2019 Over Free Speech Is \u2018Dangerous\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Gavin-Williamson.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"U.K. Education Secretary: Prioritizing \u2018Emotional Safety\u2019 Over Free Speech Is \u2018Dangerous\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2181485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}