Darren Grimes: Universities are plagued by toxic cancel culture and wokeness like never before

For those of you who don’t know who I am, my name is Darren Grimes; I’m from County Durham, as you can probably tell by the accent.

I became active in politics after years of thinking that politics is a game for those in Westminster and not for those of us on council estates. But actually, isn’t that the problem? 

There are far too many identikit voices with identikit views across our political and media class; it’s why they keep calling things wrong.

Whether it be Brexit or Boris, they called it wrong on both occasions. And boy, oh boy, do I know a thing or two about what they tried to do to those who dared campaign for that incorrect vote of ours. 

I want this show to be a forum to make you feel less alone, to recognise that politics very much is for people like us and not just for the London SW1 bubble, to say the things that need to be told, to speak to the people that are willing to say it and to debate the issues that for so long have been deemed unsayable on other channels. 

And guess what? I won’t forget the British part of our name.

Now onto what I want to talk to you about today... I'm swiftly coming to the view that most of our universities nowadays are just institutions simply there to create a new generation of the perpetually offended.

Universities are like factories; you put a kid through the university cash cow, and out comes an ideologue that ends up somewhere to the Left of Chairman Mao.  

This country used to be some of the world’s most august institutions where free speech reigned supreme, above all else, where young people would delve into debates, discover and challenge opinions of all kinds, but all that seems to be a relic of the past.

Now, these institutions are plagued by toxic cancel culture and wokeness like never before.

Only last week at Bristol University, the words ‘her’, ‘she’, ‘woman’ and even ‘maternity' were cancelled because diversity chiefs deemed the words too “problematic” and “exclusionary” as regards their maternity policy.

When one academic pointed out that only biological women can give birth, she was reported to HR, investigated by university authorities, and was forced to make an apology for apparently being ‘transphobic’!

Honestly you couldn’t make it up, to suggest that only biological women can have children is apparently now a view that can see you lose your job.

But this isn’t limited to just one university, students at Durham have read materials written by academics where the term “pregnant people” is being used to replace pregnant women.

At Northampton University, trigger warnings have now been placed on George Orwell’s book 1984 because it contains ‘explicit material’ which some students might find ‘offensive and upsetting’.

Worrying indeed folks, I can think of no more important a book for today’s brand of censorious and authoritarian Twitter mob student.

The University of Chester has given a content warning to students reading JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book over 'difficult conversations about gender, race, sexuality, class, and identity'.

Maybe soon the wokeratti will start referring to JK Rowling as “she who must not be named”.

You've got groups of green tea sipping, urban-outfitter wearing middle class liberals who over the past 10 years or so, have created a toxic environment aiming to make it so uncomfortable, for anyone who may have centre-right views, to come out and say they are conservative because they will be publicly shamed, embarrassed, and reported to all sorts of university authorities all to try and make a misery of their lives.

It's the new intolerance.

In which online mobs with virtual pitchforks shut down, silence and narrow voices of dissent.

This had led to blacklisted speakers in debating chambers, banned centre-right academic materials, de-colonisation of the curriculum, statue toppling, the banning of societies, and most importantly, a visceral hatred for Britain and what Britain stands for.

Might I suggest that these woke universities and student unions adopt the 4 British values which schools must teach our children.

Our belief in democracy, our trust in the rule of law, our pride in individual liberty and mutual respect to those of different faiths and beliefs.

Because from where I’m looking right now, there isn’t much of that happening in our universities.

On the other hand, others argue that our universities actually lead the way to living in a progressive society and that we should be embarrassed and ashamed of Britain’s current values.

Perhaps we should be encouraging teachers’ efforts in pushing for the decolonisation of the school curriculum.

Maybe, we should be praising those Head Teachers who take down our Union Jack flags and rename school houses from Winston Churchill and Francis Drake to green extreme favourite Greta Thunberg and footballer Marcus Rashford.