Just recently, the University of Bath, received a request for the Leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, to speak at an event on campus. Nick Griffin is scheduled to arrive on the 14th of May; just six days time – and this announcement has already sparked a somewhat heated debate in certain circles.

The Bath University Secretary, Mark Humphriss, recently sent out an internal news item saying that the meeting would go ahead as planned, as the University of Bath website claims that:

So far as is reasonably practicable, no premises of the University shall be denied to any individual or body of persons on any grounds connected with the beliefs or views of that individual or of that body, or the policy or objectives of that body.

This seems a perfectly good and sensible policy to me, however, there has been much dissension among, what could ostensibly labelled as the authoritarian liberal-left of the student and university body. The three campus trade unions, UCU, Unison and Amicus have jointly released a document stating:

We are extremely disappointed that the University has made this decision, as we do not think it is a freedom of speech issue, but a freedom from harassment issue.

Though they have said they will peacefully protest against the BNP meeting and will not actively try to stop it, I think this gives a good insight into their general mindset. I wonder though, would these Unions have been protesting so profusely; or indeed at all, if for example an archaic Communist such as Hugo Chavez wished to speak at a similar event?

In addition, the useless Bath Student Union even went as far as to call an ‘extraordinary meeting’ to discuss the proposal in detail, in the Elements Bar (any excuse,) and numerous Bath students have signed up to a number of the now seemingly obligatory and pointless facebook groups that never achieve anything except to further inflate the egos of their creators.

Click here to continue reading…

The University of Bath is part of the Bath & North-East Somerset council ward of Bathwick. Recently, Chris Dawson, administrator for the newly launched Bathwick Hill Community site, emailed us to tell us about his online initiative and about how students could get involved.

Mr Dawson hopes that as many people as possible will register on the site and take part in local activities and events. We have added a link to the sidebar of our website and we hope this website will play its part in helping to bridge the divide between University students and the long-term residents of Bathwick.