Complaints of Censorship Over Brexit Commentary
LONDON — The letter is polite, polished and understated.
Written by a senior Conservative Party lawmaker, Christopher Heaton-Harris, and sent to British universities, it asked for the names of professors involved in teaching students about Europe, including Britain’s decision last year to leave the European Union, a process known as Brexit.
The letter has provoked a debate on whether the country is being subjected to political censorship.
The uproar increased on October 26 after The Daily Mail, a popular tabloid that has supported Brexit, published a front- page article citing instances in which it said professors had encouraged students to oppose a Brexit. On another page, more headshots of academic l eaders were assembled around a headline that read: “Just why is every new Oxbridge head a leftie?” (“Oxbridge” is shorthand for the two leading universit ies in Britain: Oxford and Cambridge.)
Searing divisions dominate Brita i n more than a year after its referendum on Brexit. There is deep uncertainty over what Britain’s future should look like. Negotiations with the European Union over divorce terms have all but stalled. Even the ruling Conservative Party, which called for the referendum, is divided over what kind of a break it wants.
A British minister who oversees universities, Jo Johnson, has defended Mr. Heaton-Harris, saying he was simply doing research for a book.
Mr. Heaton- Harris wrote on Twitter that he “believes in free speech and in having an open and vigorous debate on Brexit.”
David Green, the vice chancel- lor of the University of Worcester who received the letter, said that he had never seen anything like it in nearly four decades in academia. The lawmaker “wants to publish the names of people he thinks are allegedly polluting the minds of young people,” Mr. Green said, adding that the letter did not refer to any research or book.
Typically, in the Brexit debate, those in the “leave” camp are described as populist and anti-immigrant, while the “remain” camp is disparaged as elitist — educated, professional, academics and others — and called things like traitors.
The Daily Mail recently quoted a student at Durham University in northeastern England who had voted “leave.” There was “a wor- rying ‘group think’ atmosphere hanging over our universities,” the student said. “Too many young people who voted ‘ leave’ feel intimidated or afraid to speak up because of this heavy atmosphere of institutional bias.”
Supporters of Mr. Heaton-Harris question how receptive universities are to different views. In the end, wrote Stephen Glover, a Daily Mail columnist and an alumnus of Oxford, “The patronizing, elitist hysteria of universities over being asked about Brexit will harden the views of millions who voted for it.
“It was partly as a revolt against such patronizing attitudes that so many less privileged Britons voted Brexit.”