Oxford’s ‘UNWomen’ society no-platformed Amber Rudd last night, cancelling her invitation to speak at the last minute. This abrupt turnaround came as the ‘non-partisan‘ society caved to complaints from a mob of far-left students.
“Following a majority vote in committee, tonight’s event with speaker Amber Rudd has been cancelled. We are deeply sorry for all and any hurt caused to our members and other wom*n and non-binary people in Oxford over this event.”
Complaints that followed the initial publication of the event prompted the society to open a consultation where students could submit feedback over the decision to invite the former independent Member of Parliament who quit the Government over Brexit last year.
“The concerns we see happening now around this event are absolutely ones which we as a committee feel ourselves. We invited Ms Rudd on the understanding that this would be an honest and frank conversation about how her policies have impacted wom*n of all races, religions, classes et cetera.
We will not run away from mentioning any of Ms Rudd’s past comments or policies, and we ask you to attend this event to help us campaign for a truly frank feminism which is not afraid of taking such opportunities to discuss these issues with high profile figures.”
While the society initially felt like the event would offer a good chance to debate and even criticise one of the most high profile female politicians in the country, respondents clearly disagreed. The centrist politician was just too much for some Oxford students to take…
Rudd is, of course, on police files as the perpetrator of a “non-crime hate incident”, after an Oxford University Professor Joshua Silver reported the then-Home Secretary’s 2016 Conservative Party Conference speech to the West Midlands Police. Not that any due process was needed to add the incident to official statistics…
UPDATE: Oxford University condemns the UNWomen society for no-platforming Rudd
We strongly disapprove of the decision by the UNWomen Oxford UK Society to disinvite Amber Rudd after she had been asked to speak.
Oxford is committed to freedom of speech & opposes no-platforming. We will be taking steps to ensure that this situation doesn’t happen in future.
— Oxford University (@UniofOxford) March 6, 2020
