Woke ideology has a way of generating phrases that send a shiver down the spine. To me in particular, one chilling dictum sums up the dogma: 'The process is the punishment.'
What does it mean? That merely being investigated for speaking out against hard-Left orthodoxy is itself a kind of torment. Academics don't have to be guilty of any professional misdemeanour. The accusation of a thoughtcrime alone is sufficient to inflict anxiety and fear, silence opposition and impose obedience.
This week, in her first speech as Oxford's vice-chancellor, Professor Irene Tracey referred to a survey from last year. This found that, while there may be strong agreement in the abstract that free speech should be protected in universities, only a paltry 20 per cent of those who took part agreed that universities should allow all ideas and opinions to be expressed even if some people might feel 'threatened' as a result of them.
As Professor Tracey warned: 'This highlights one of the tasks we have: making sure that free speech happens within the bounds of civility, intellectual rigour and the law.'
Her attitude emphasising limits on free speech is troubling. The pendulum has swung too far already — as I know to my cost — with free speech under assault as never before. As a former professor at University of London, I spent years battling woke forces within the institution determined to hound me out after two decades of employment for daring to question hardline 'progressive' beliefs.
In all, I was subjected to three internal inquiries by the university and, although a non-disclosure agreement bars me from discussing them in any detail, I can tell you they made my life intolerable.
So what exactly was my supposed offence? As former head of the politics department at London's Birkbeck college, in recent years I had repeatedly criticised the illiberal excesses of self-appointed defenders of 'identity groups' such as racial minorities and trans people. This had angered some staff and students.
It seemed inevitable that my research — which included, for example, investigating whether academics make hiring decisions based on a candidate's support for Brexit — would eventually raise the hackles of the 'Ethics Committee'.
