Nick Hillman recently posted a blog which quoted a book written by Matthew Goodwin in which he (Goodwin) criticises universities for what he perceives are their excessively liberal values, claiming that they have been out of step with the population at large. I need to make it clear at the outset that I have not read Goodwin’s book (though I have read articles by him in the Daily Telegraph making similar points), so my comments here are more generally concerned with attacks on universities and their values that appear regularly in some of the media and in the views and statements of some politicians.
What is it that Goodwin and others are objecting to? Generally, what they object to is ‘Woke’ – highlighting and implementing measures intended to address issues of perceived social and racial injustice. And universities are especially likely to have Woke attitudes and to engage in Woke activity.
It is no accident that the most vocal critics of Woke in universities are those – led by some media outlets and politicians – who are hostile to immigrants, who regard asylum seekers as criminals, who described the warnings about the consequences of Brexit as ‘project fear’, and who are hostile to net-zero policies designed to address global warming. They have also coined the expression ‘snowflake generation’ in response to the recognition by universities that discussion of sensitive issues – like racism / antisemitism, for example – can be uncomfortable for some and which therefore take measures to address such sensitivities.
