What if…? Thoughts on Gavin Williamson’s ‘Landmark’ Proposals to Strengthen ‘Free Speech’ at Universities

or all his lofty ideals about the need to protect democratic values, free speech and liberal society, it is hard to escape the feeling that the key driver behind the recent proposals presented by the Secretary of State for Education is the notion that British universities are being stifled by a ‘politically-homogeneous culture’ that primarily impacts upon ‘Conservative, or more right-leaning opinions’. ‘There is’, Williamson writes in the Foreword, ‘evidence that a minority of students and academics may be having a disproportionate influence on censoring expression on campus’. His use of the word may (my emphasis) is revealing here: should central Government intervene on a ‘problem’ for which the evidence for its seriousness is not sufficiently compelling?