At the end of last month, an extraordinary incident took place at a leading university in the UK. The Pro-Life Society at the University of Manchester had organised for a speaker, Dr. Dermot Kearney, to give a talk to the society on the 28th of March.
The location had not been made public, but instead was sent out to interested individuals privately, to prevent any disruption by protests. The room for the event had to be booked via the Student Union, however, and was promptly leaked by members of its staff. Indeed, at the ensuing protest that gathered on the evening of the scheduled talk, at least two members of the Student Union were present, and so it’s evident how the protestors learned of the location.
Two attendees arrived early for the talk and were able to enter the building. Soon after, the speaker and the rest of the attendees arrived, but by that point, the protestors were blocking the only entrance to the building. There were around 50 protesters with signs, megaphones, and loudspeakers; one of them was handing out masks for the other protestors to wear.
The Pro-Life Society members were prevented from entering the building for the talk. Present were at least four security guards and around five police officers. The police officers told the Society’s members that they were awaiting police reinforcements, which gave those members the impression that they would be assisted to enter the building when more police officers arrived. That never happened. Some of the attendees, with the speaker, went to a nearby library for safety, and in the hope that their departure would de-escalate the situation.
That evening, the meeting was officially cancelled by Manchester University. The Society’s members were finally informed that they would not be allowed to enter the building. Later, the attendees who had been trapped inside the building for hours were assisted by the police to leave. They felt extremely vulnerable and threatened as the crowd closed in around them while they exited the building. The speaker along with the attendees were also escorted by police officers to the main road and had to find another impromptu place to hold the event off campus.
The protestors were loud, aggressive, and intimidating, shouting abusive language at the distressed attendees. “F**k the Church!” was repeatedly screamed at them. The protest was organised by the Feminist Society of the University of Manchester.
Free speech is a protected liberty. Intimidation is not. So, we might ask ourselves why, when observing threatening and intimidating behaviour, the police officers present stood by and watched, doing nothing to address it. If Manchester University’s Feminist Society had scheduled a talk or lecture on a contentious issue about which they cared deeply, and 50 pro-lifers had turned up and began barring the door, trapping people inside the building, and screaming abuse at the feminists, would the police have refrained from acting?
Given the distinctly anti-Christian nature of the slogans chanted by protestors, one might also infer that religious intolerance and discrimination are no longer treated with seriousness in the UK. Under the Equality Act 2010, it is the law of the land that citizens are to be free from persecution on the grounds of their religion. But perhaps, in two-tier Britain, Christians are excepted from such protections.
Now that we have all got used to the UK’s two-tier policing, we can imagine how the police would have acted if such a situation were reversed. They would have gone about dispersing the crowd and probably arresting people. But in the UK of today, the role of the police, it seems, is no longer to uphold the law fairly and firmly, prevent crime, pursue and bring to justice those who break the law, and keep the King’s peace. Rather, it appears their role is to act or not act in accordance with ideological fashion.
And what of Manchester University? Would the university have tolerated such behaviour from the Pro-Life Society’s members? Were the situation reversed, would the university have simply cancelled the Feminist Society’s event and said no more about it?
Following the abuse they suffered on the 28th of March, there are now a number of students studying at the university who feel distressed, threatened, and outcasted on account of their moral convictions—which were, it is worth mentioning in passing, the convictions of our entire civilisation for millennia until half a century ago, and hence can hardly be considered very eccentric. It is surprising, in fact, that such a scandal of bullying and intimidation of a small group of students at a top UK university has received no mention at all in any mainstream media outlet.
So, there we have it. In the UK today, the once privileged place of the liberty of assembly and freedom of speech has been lost. If your convictions do not sufficiently concord with those of the dominant ideology, you can expect harassment and ostracization, even in and from institutions that will happily take your money while they’re at it.
Much of the world currently thinks that the UK has become a basket case of ideological inquisition, thought crime, and two-tier policing. This recent incident at the University of Manchester confirms that such a verdict is dead right.