In March, I watched, online, a crowd of 250 students at Manchester University held back by the police as a small number of their peers left a student union closed-door, pro-life society event. I predicted a well-rehearsed schedule of mania: some pieces in the newspapers; a GB News appearance; finally, a dull and statutory response by the university about its legal duties relating to free speech.
What I didn’t expect was a joint statement of the university and student union referring to “the unease and concern that some members of our university community have felt in recent weeks, following the affiliation of the Pro-Life Society at the students’ union”. Collusion may be good stakeholder management, but describing a baying mob as engaging in “intense debate” suggests that “debate” at Manchester University now means something different from what it meant in the past.
