Joe Miles week 4: ‘Clegg off Campus’ off campus

Having realised that most Oxford students think that fascism is a bit shit, the Oxford Activist Network have decided to gain media attention by protesting the embodiment of right-wing evil that is Nick Clegg. This isn’t “No Platform”, mind. That tactic is only reserved for actual fascists, or else it might look like we’re trying to stop students hearing anyone that we disagree with.

We just don’t want him to speak at our university because we and all our mates, who voted for various hard Left parties in the last election, think that he personally betrayed us.

Joe Miles is absolutely disgusted.

Frankly, the tuition fees pledge was stupid. Everybody knows that you never make any promises to the electorate that you can’t get away with breaking. But in a city like Oxford, tuition fees aren’t even the most important issue.

Given how expensive it is to live in the South East of England, the day-to-day living costs are far more important. I give more of a shit that the cost for me to eat for a week in Oxford is about the same as my entire family’s food bill up North. If Nick Clegg had personally presided over a reduction in the maintenance loan, I would be up there manning the barricades myself.

Even if you think Nick Clegg is uniquely guilty of being a duplicitous cretin, the “Clegg off Campus” protest should worry you. I can see why people would not want fascists and racists to speak in areas where they might pose a direct harm to threatened ethnic minorities. But Nick Clegg does not fall into this category.

Oxford’s newest face on campus

Yes, he has done things that most students disagree with. But Labour introduced fees, and the Tories were just as complicit in many of the decisions regarding higher education funding. Even if you know what your beliefs are and have no intention of changing them, it is wrong to prevent fellow students from having the opportunity to hear a different perspective.

After all, universities are a hotbed of radical politics. If we restrict the ability of even moderates to share their views here, then there may come a day when that tactic is used to also suppress radical opinion in one of the only places where it is welcome.