The National Union of Students has finally released a statement to students following last week’s conference debacle, when rapper Lowkey cancelled his performance at the event after his eyebrow-raising views on NATO, Russia and Ukraine started doing the rounds on social media. Initially, NUS president Larissa Kennedy refused to back down, even after the Union of Jewish Students complained, because she was “more concerned about who she might hurt if the event was cancelled…

Now the NUS have come up with a typically nuanced and fair-minded response in the wake of yet another unforced error. Apparently Lowkey has been the victim of “harassment and misinformation”:

“Since we promoted Lowkey as a speaker, there has been a strong response to some of his recent actions and associations. Like with most issues discussed on social media or the press, there is a mix of facts, opinions and misinformation in circulation. We are horrified to know that some students in our community, particularly Jewish students, may now be wondering if they will be fully comfortable at our upcoming events. We’re very sorry to any students who are hurt by some of the things they’ve read about NUS in the last few days.

“We invited Lowkey to speak at NUS Liberation Conference because we feel his contribution would have been invaluable to students’ discussions on decolonising education, class injustice, and divesting from companies that harm people and planet. Whilst we welcome genuine political debate, we’ve been sad to see the use of harassment and misinformation against Lowkey. We condemn these tactics used against anybody, but particularly towards activists and people of colour…”

In this case, ‘opinions and misinformation‘ seems to include reporting Lowkey’s statements verbatim, and then getting upset when those statements make you look bad. Disappointed conference-goers will be glad to hear Zarah is still scheduled to attend…