{"id":178294,"date":"2024-11-18T19:22:07","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T19:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=178294"},"modified":"2024-11-18T19:22:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T19:22:07","slug":"eminent-authors-demand-uk-government-end-cancel-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/eminent-authors-demand-uk-government-end-cancel-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Eminent Authors Demand UK Government End Cancel Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of over two dozen authors including Stephen Fry, Tom Holland and Ian McEwan, have signed a letter telling the UK Government to end \u201ccancel culture<\/em>\u201d by implementing the university Free Speech Act<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The authors join a number of Nobel<\/em> laureates and more than 600 academics who have already demanded that the Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson implement the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act<\/em> without delay.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/a> reports: Some of Britain\u2019s most eminent authors have told ministers that literary freedom is being \u201ceroded<\/em>\u201d by their failure to stand up to \u201ccancel culture<\/em>\u201d on university campuses.<\/p>\n

In an attack on the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, more than two dozen authors accused the Government of failing to safeguard \u201chumane and liberal values<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

They called on her to drop her opposition to implementing legislation that would, for the first time, force universities to protect the right of legal free speech on campus<\/a> or face sanctions.<\/p>\n

Those signing the letter include the novelists Ian McEwan, Lady Antonia Fraser and Lionel Shriver. They have been joined by the philosopher A.C. Grayling, the actor and author Stephen Fry and the former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion.<\/p>\n

Others signatories include Tom Holland, co-host of The Rest is History<\/em> podcast, the literary agent Neil Blair and the former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies.<\/p>\n

Grayling said that he believed in promoting the causes that \u201cwokeism<\/em>\u201d defended but regarded most \u201ccancelling<\/em>\u201d as a \u201cmistaken strategy<\/em>\u201d that could have \u201ca chilling effect on the freedom of expression<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA university is a place where every idea, every point of view, however disgusting some might be, should be aired, discussed, analysed, understood and whenever necessary challenged<\/em>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is as tough to engage with the views of those with whom one emphatically disagrees as it is to engage with racists and sexists, but to lock them in a box is never more than a temporary solution<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cDefending <\/em>free speech in universities<\/em><\/a>, which involves not shutting down dissent and protest, requires using better free speech than the free speech of others when harmfully used<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

yogaesoteric
\nNovember 18, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of over two dozen authors including Stephen Fry, Tom Holland and Ian McEwan, have signed a letter telling the UK Government to end \u201ccancel culture\u201d by implementing the university Free Speech Act. The authors join a number of Nobel laureates and more than 600 academics who have already demanded that the Secretary of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178298,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178294\/revisions\/178298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}