SU President, apologise for your affront on free speech

Just when you thought the General Election campaign couldn’t get any more exciting, a spectacular intervention was made by that titan of student politics, Cat Turhan.

Do you guys remember Turhan at all? She was elected to SU President last year. Her position involves her being “representative of student views”, or was it that she has to “work to embed community integration”, perhaps it was even that she has to “work to embed Warwick SU’s values”.

But her latest post mocks everything the position stands for. To my mind she may be entitled to her own views, but there is a line and it was crossed.

The University of Warwick Conservative Association got up at 6am the other day to put up some blue posters (cute). Predictably, they were torn down by students over the course of the day. Cat Turhan, president of the SU took a photograph of the remnants of the posters and condoned this vandalism and affront to free speech.

Stay classy Cat x

Cat has muddied her hands and sullied her position as President by encouraging this suppression of free expression on campus.

Cat is a human being. She is entitled to her own opinions and I do not have a problem with her expressing them on her personal Facebook account. What I do have a problem with however is the fact that she, as President of the SU has condoned an attack on free speech, in clear violation of her job description.

The SU President’s job description

By encouraging this vile assault on free speech, Cat has done her part in damaging a constructive and democratic atmosphere at Warwick. She has alienated not just Conservatives, but anyone who doesn’t share campus’ fashionable opinions.

One student told The Tab: ‘I feel afraid to raise my own points because I’ve seen people’s character assassinated based on their political beliefs. I don’t mind any commenter attacking my political party, but I mind actual people being attacked because they called out the President’.

This is immensely unhealthy for any community, but it is particularly damning of Cat when you consider her job description.

All individuals have the right to express their opinions freely and without being silenced. That goes for everyone: socialists, conservatives, liberals, anarchists, fascists, Leeds supporters, everyone.

The Warwick Tories: a lovable bunch

She has not only fanned the flames of division on campus, she has also damaged the University’s image as a tolerant bastion of free thought.

Cat should apologise for this, not to the Conservatives, but to everyone at this uni.

By encouraging attacks on free speech she has betrayed the position, everyone who voted for her, and everyone who believes in a person’s right to say what they like.