Ross Clark
shelled out £9,940 towards this drivel or that Leeds Beckett University, where the lead author is based, began life as the Leeds Mechanics’ Institute, a down-to-earth college which once trained generations of engineers in the skills that made the North of England the workshop of the world.
No wonder our national productivity is slipping behind other countries when educational resources are being diverted into such rubbish.
It seems that in our universities anything now goes – so long as it is in direct conflict with common sense. Worse, bizarre ideas which start in universities now seem to be filtering through into government policy. Take the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act, that mean all of us in future will be able to self-define our own gender.
Just how ridiculous this is was underlined at the weekend when Amy Desir and a woman called Hannah donned men’s swimming trunks and joined a men-only swimming session at a pool in Dulwich, London.
And no, they weren’t being “transphobic” by pointing out the absurdities of the Government’s plans. There is a serious psychological condition known as gender dysphoria, when people feel they are in the wrong body. It is a good thing that modern medical science can resolve this and any bullying
IN CAMBRIDGE an event themed on the novel Around The World In 80 Days was cancelled on the grounds that Left-wing students decided it was offensive to other cultures. In Norwich a student union stopped a Mexican restaurant handing out sombreros on the grounds that they promote a stereotypical image of Mexicans. Is there anyone in Britain who would be offended if a group of Mexicans put on bowler hats, thus “appropriating” English culture? The idea is absurd.
It has become a game on the part of political activists: pick on someone or something and denounce it as racist, sexist or “colonialist” – and try to extract some kind of apology or resignation. They must be secretly smirking when they find themselves being taken seriously.
What a change from the days when British society could see straight through foolish ideologies and self-serving nonsense.
It wasn’t so long ago that the idea that PE lessons are racist would have been ridiculed. Now, a pair of academics are thrown money to publish it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there is someone in Whitehall already working on a policy to eradicate the scourge of racism from PE lessons. Trouble is, they will never win. If children are taught to play cricket or football it is colonialist. If they are taught instead to exercise through, I don’t know, African rain dances, that will be “cultural appropriation”.
Far better government develops a more robust response to nonsense like this – and stops funding it in the first place.
‘Even fair play is seen as white imperialism’