A second year wants a university referendum on the Safe Space Policy

Campus troublemaker Ben Kew has issued a motion to scrap the university’s safe space policy.

The motion, which will be voted on at the Annual Members Meeting of the Bristol Student Union on February 18, calls for the university to hold a referendum on its approach to what kind of views are labelled as unacceptable.

If students vote in favour of Ben’s idea then a referendum will be called, allowing us the choice of scrapping the policy in favour of a “simplified anti-bullying policy that ensures no personal attacks can be made at students of the university.”

Ben with the controversial George Lawlor

Ben, also the President of the University of Bristol Journalism Society, claims many students find the Safe Space Policy to be highly patronising and that some groups have been abusing it to prevent the discussion of opinions they do not share.

The call for action against the policy comes at a time when students across the country have been complaining bitterly about the damage safe space policies are causing to free speech.

Countless speakers such as Germaine Greer, one of the major voices of the second-wave feminist movement, have been banned from campuses due to the supposedly hateful views they hold.

Controversial speaker Milo Yiannopoulos was almost banned from appearing in Bristol last term after Ben Kew invited him to speak at a Journalism Society event.

A previous article by Ben Kew on the subject

Bristol University recently received the worst possible score in Spiked Online’s University Free Speech rankings.

Students keen to hear about the subject may be interested in a talk from Spiked’s editor Brendan O’Neill who is coming to Bristol on March 3.

O’Neill, who has been invited by Kew’s Journalism Society, is set to give a talk called “No More Safe Spaces: The Case for Free Speech on Campus.”

To vote on this highly important issue, (which could change Bristol’s campus environment significantly), students should attend the AMM held at the Student Union next Thursday.