I wasn’t the victim when a university vetoed my talk. It was the young people failed by snowflake adults
The usual tale of cancel culture on university campuses presents the cancelled speaker as a victim and “snowflake” students as villains. But it is not always that simple.
This week, I hit the headlines after the debating society at Royal Holloway University was harangued into cancelling an event at which I was due to speak. Student union bureaucrats had claimed my retweet of a clip from Ricky Gervais’s Netflix show proved that I was “overtly transphobic”.
That was slanderous – I am not an advocate for hate towards trans people or anyone else – but I’d like to emphasise that I am not the victim here. I have ample platforms, from the House of Lords to broadsheet newspapers. My concern is for students’ rights and their ability to hear from people of their choice. Too often, they are becoming victims to chilling, behind the scenes pressure from campus activists.
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