Ross Clark

against sexism from birth – something that cannot be said of men who have become women in middle age. Yet, according to Oxford’s transgender activists, these views put Murray beyond the pale. “Enabling such a transphobic speaker to come to Oxford and disseminate her views shows a considerable disregard for the welfare and existence of trans students,” they complained. It seems they have got their way. Soon after they began to lobby university authorities, Murray announced that she was withdrawing from the meeting.

There is nothing new, of course, about students protesting at things, or even trying to have speakers banned from campuses. But the bar on what students find acceptable seems to have been lowered to a ridiculously low level.

When I was at Cambridge in the 1980s it took a visit by Enoch Powell, whose horrible “Rivers of Blood” speech was still very much influencing race relations in Britain, to provoke students to take to the streets.

Now, any speaker who differs from the grim orthodoxy of Left-wing student politics seems to attract a protest. Part of this must be down to social media. Students used to have to get out of bed to protest. Now they can tweet, and post on Facebook, without having to raise their heads from their pillows.

But it goes deeper than that. There is a large section of the Left that has pretty well given up on reasoned debate. Its only tool in argument is trying to exclude the views of those with whom it disagrees. Its tactic is always to try to delegitimise its opponents, banning them from platforms or, if it can’t do that, subjecting them to Twitter storms accusing them of hate and extremism. That there is something extreme in their own behaviour does not, of course, occur to them.

WHAT bothers me most is not the behaviour of Leftwing students themselves. It is the way in which university authorities – and many others – aid and abet Left-wing campaigns to silence speakers.

I don’t know what exactly motivated Jenni Murray to withdraw from the meeting. Maybe she really did have some pressing engagement in her private life. Or maybe she was politely disinvited because someone thought it would be too much trouble if she came. But it is not what used to happen when controversial speakers were invited to universities. Enoch Powell’s visit to Cambridge created mayhem, but the university made sure he got to speak – just as the students’ right to protest was respected.

Now, it always seems to be the same old story. Students complain about a speaker and a meeting is quietly cancelled. Left-wing groups arouse a Twitter storm over something a public figure has said and an apology meekly follows – if not a resignation. It is as if pressure groups have an unalienable right not to be offended.

Why are we giving in so easily to the crude political trick of taking offence? The price of doing so, of course, is merely to encourage the professional offence-takers. If they have managed to silence Jenni Murray, they will conclude, they can silence absolutely anyone with whom they disagree?

Jenni Murray’s withdrawal from Saturday’s meeting has not merely deprived the History Society’s members of what I am sure would have been an entertaining and lively speech. It has done its own little bit to diminish Oxford University as a centre of thought and defender of free speech.

‘Students today can protest from bed’