Bridget Phillipson has just updated the Commons on the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. The Tory act strengthened impositions on universities to support free speech on their premises and would introduce a complaints scheme to resolve issues. Naturally Labour said this would “enable hate speech” and immediately scrapped it. Now Bridget’s bringing it back…
Phillipson says the legislation will now go ahead after all and “proceed in a way that actually works.” Hundreds of leading academics railed against her decision to scrap it last year…
Labour spin goes that the act was “paused” to take the “time to hear concerns about its impact,” and that “academic freedom matters more than students not being offended.” Back when it was scrapped Guido seems to remember Labour referring to it as an “antisemite’s charter.” In revised legislation the Office for Students will have powers set up under the original act though academics won’t be able to seek damages from their universities free speech violations. A climbdown…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”