Mick Hartley

Symptomatic is, I think, the word we're looking for here. This is what the authorities at UK universities are now all about. Jawad Iqbal – University chooses cowardice in row over race tsar Tony Sewell:

Who is afraid of Tony Sewell, the author of a government report on race that concluded Britain was not institutionally racist? Running scared are those in charge of Nottingham University, which has backtracked on the offer of a honorary degree to Sewell because he has become the subject of “political controversy”. Weasel words covering a volte-face that is as patronising as it is spineless.

The university’s offer was made in late 2019, before the publication of Sewell’s race report. What changed? The hostility to his findings from some race and equalities lobby groups and campaigners. The university clearly cannot stomach the risk of courting trouble from the same critics for “honouring” Sewell.

This political cowardice is risible enough. Worse is for the authorities to hide behind the absurd excuse of “political controversy”. Isn’t political controversy, and debating conflicting ideas, the very thing that students should be exposed to? No original thinker, no critique of society, comes without controversy. Did Nelson Mandela (a 1996 recipient of an honorary degree from Nottingham University) think the way to fight apartheid was to avoid controversy?

Nottingham runs away from Sewell yet is happy to have given honours to Liu Xiaoming, who as Chinese ambassador to London airily dismissed Uighur re-education camps as “fake news”. Was this not politically controversial?

… Sewell runs Generating Genius, a charity helping black children into higher education. He has helped thousands from poor backgrounds into universities. He isn’t the one who has been diminished by this sorry saga. Nottingham University could have spared itself great embarrassment and damage by sticking to its promises. It is greatly diminished.