This week, the affiliation of a pro-life student society at the University of Manchester has been reported across the mainstream press. While some reports suggest the over 15,000 people petitioning on the matter are merely “voicing concerns”, a cursory glance of their campaign page shows that signees are demanding the club be forcibly dissolved.
Despite this coordinated pressure, the University of Manchester Students’ Union (SU) has admitted-through proverbially gritted teeth- that it would be illegal to reject the society’s application to officially affiliate. Their statement included the chilling bureaucratic caveat that “if the actions of a society amount to hate speech or harassment, it would be challenged in line with the relevant procedures.”
