20/02/2021
The well respected African-Caribbean weekly The Voice reveals shocking evidence that the Conservative Government is kicking savagely back against the Black Lives Matter movement and other campaigns such as LGBTQ Pride. The Department of Education claims that what it describes as “free speech” is under attack on British campuses, although its own internal report dated 2018 found that there was no systematic campaign forcing academics to be silenced for right wing views. The Department proposes to appoint what it describes as a “free speech champion” and says that it is going “to defend British values against those of activists who want to do Britain down”. This comment immediately drew ire from Black Lives Matter and other anti-racist groups who says that it is part of a backlash to events such as the toppling of statues of slave traders in cities like Bristol. In addition, LGBTQ and environmental groups fear that the “free speech” champion is a thinly disguised attempt at empowering traditionally powerful people, such as white straight men, to silence people they do not like. One gay man tweeted, “the right wing do not care about free speech really, They care about their free speech and to hell with women, gay and black people”.