The cocoon of diversity

In my lifetime the cause of civil rights has transformed the lives of millions in what we now call 'minorities'. From the gradual liberation of women and allowing gay people to actually live free lives through to the insistence on equal treatment for people with different skin colours, we live in a very different, and more civilised, society than we did when I was born.

I also know that prejudice continues - from the laughable idea that someone can't be English because they've a slightly darker skin through to the casual way in which women, gay people and the disabled are excluded. In some ways what we do goes too far - positive discrimination tends to favour those individuals from minorities who probably need the least help and the straightjacket of 'protected characteristics' leaves some groups facing prejudice without recourse to the protection offered to others.

Now the problem is that, with all this placing of people into discrete groups - ethnicity, disability, gender, sexual preference, age - we have allowed groupthink to take over with the result that far from an inclusive, united and open society we have one characterised by self-segregation, exclusion and mistrust. A sort of self-imposed apartheid is growing from this corrupted soil:

Robert Lopez, a spokesman for the university, confirmed to The College Fix that the students’ demand for housing specifically for black students had been met, saying that the school’s new Halisi Scholars Black Living-Learning Community “focuses on academic excellence and learning experiences that are inclusive and non-discriminatory.”

What sort of world have we come to where intelligent, educated young people want to segregate themselves from others purely on the basis of their skin colour? Don't get me wrong here - if a bunch of black students (or for that matter brown, yellow, red or white students) choose to live together that's entirely their business. But to demand, as students at California State University in Los Angeles did, that the college authorities set aside a place purely for this purpose is to make diversity a protective cocoon rather than a chance to realise that all those other folk - men, women, gay, straight, black, white, able-bodied, disabled - are just other human beings.

This process of segregation - shocking given the history of racial oppression in the USA - is spreading across college campuses even to the extent of segregated induction and segregated staff:

UW-Madison’s Multicultural Student Center held meetings separated by race July 11. “The center held two distinct sets of ‘processing’ meet-ups. First, two ‘processing circles,’ one for white staff and another for non-white staff, were held in the morning, followed by racially separated ‘processing meet-ups’ for students in the evening,”

It seems that, far from seeking engagement in society, a section of black America is trying to create parallel structures and organisations simply to prevent any risk of 'microaggressions' resulting from sharing space with white people. This attitude is not only very disturbing but, worse still, acts to reinforce the unpleasant view that black people don't want to be part of wider American society. Put simply, all the work done - from Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King onwards - to get a society where minorities have equal rights is unfurling as these students, indulged by college authorities, recreate a world where group characteristics like skin colour, gender or disability are what defines a person not the 'content of their character'. And rather than this being a consequence of others prejudice it is rather the desire of these groups to avoid any place where words or actions might offend - a cocoon of diversity.

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Banning pub crawls - now that'll work!

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Yes folks, this is what the Government is encouraging with £90,000 worth of funding for the National Union of Students (NUS):

Boozy pub crawls such as the famed Otley Run in Leeds could be banned in a Home Office pilot scheme to crack down on binge drinking.

The 12-month Alcohol Impact Scheme was set up by the National Union of Students (NUS) to curb binge drinking and anti-social behaviour on campus.

It aims to stop pub crawls between university bars and also ban them beginning on university campus.

So these ghastly little tin-pot student gauleiters have decided that they'll stop the pub crawl!I wish them luck. Unless something has changed recently, young people don't need someone to organise their drinking escapades - the pubs are there and they'll parade from one to the next down Otley Road.

As the Yorkshire Post point out, drinking isn't really the problem the Home Office seem to think it is (this is though a reminder about Theresa May's inappropriateness as a future Conservative leader):

...official figures from the NHS and Office of National Statistics showing that drinking among students is actually in decline.

New figures show the number of 16 to 24 year olds who drink once a week has dropped from 71 per cent to 50 per cent between 1998 and 2012.

But hey, let's not let facts get in the way of a nice grant, eh!

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Now about those young people binge drinking...

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Today at Bradford's full council meeting one councillor (from 'the party formerly known as Respect') asked a question about the 'night time economy' on Great Horton Road. Now those who know Bradford will appreciate that this is the area around the University and, it appears, there is the familiar 'students are spoiling our lovely community by enjoying themselves' campaign.

However, it seems to me that, compared to my experience thirty years ago, today's students are a more abstemious, more serious bunch:

Many seemed to be cutting back their alcohol intake - only 22 per cent of undergraduates reported drinking more than 11 units a week (equivalent to about five and a half pints of beer), compared with 28 per cent in 2010 and 33 per cent in 2008.

And dig a little deeper and we find that a third of students report that they don't drink at all and a further 40% limited the drinking to just once a week. Now there are plenty of reasons for this - partly it's the additional pressure that having big loans brings and partly it's a wider shift (non-students in this age group are a pretty sober bunch as well). However, what it does tell us, is that the old hedonistic 'party party' image of student life really doesn't describe the reality.

Yet again the lie of public health (and Daily Mail) campaigns about 'binge drinking' is revealed - most young people have neither the cash nor the inclination to drink in the manner of past generations. Despite this truth - revealed in survey after survey, study upon study - we're still told that young people are being corrupted by drink ads and offers, are 'pre-loading' with super-cheap alcohol and generally destroying their health.

Will there ever be a point when the public health folk stop the fibs about binge drinking?

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Leaving Venezuela

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Seems to be a popular pastime:

Sometimes the lines are 200 deep, drawing complaints from passing office workers and forcing a rotating cadre of self-appointed leaders to maintain a 24-hour vigil so that nobody jumps the line when the consulate, which operates out of a law office, opens between 10am and noon.

And those are just the students heading for Ireland!

We also get the champion quote on this socialist paradise:

“If the government is suspicious then they should present proof,” said Rodriguez, who says that a third of her close friends have already left Venezuela. “It’s not our fault the country isn’t progressing.”

Ha! Not progressing! A real triumph for progressive politics there!

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My new heroes - some Warwick University students

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Who chose not to be bullied and to further their education:

A group of history undergraduates at Warwick are causing controversy by organising their own student-led lectures while their tutors go on strike.

It doesn't matter whether or not you support the reasons for the strike, these students show initiative, creativity and leadership. They have every right to take this action, just as the lecturers have every right to go on strike. And it sticks a couple of fingers up at the bullying nature of trade unions when it comes to what they deem to be 'strike-breaking'. 

And the response of the union is, as ever, to threaten:

“Further escalation of the dispute, including a ban on marking, will unfortunately lead to greater disruption. We urge students to contact their vice-chancellor or principal and ask them to lobby the national employers’ negotiating body, UCEA, to urgently reopen negotiations.”

The message seems to be: "do what we say students or we'll stop you from getting the education you're paying for".

Well done to those students for standing up and making clear that they are the customer here - as one student put it:

"This is an argument between the staff and governing body, not the students and it is not right that we are jeopardised. It is unfortunate that the education system seems to be neglecting its primary aim in the face of monetary conflicts."

Well said and quite understandable given £9,000 in fees!

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Newspeak?

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...or what?

Human resources director Rita Colucci and health services staff were scheduled to meet with a sampling of students yesterday to gauge their interest in a smoke-free campus. While there are no other meetings planned, Magazu said the school might do more public vetting around campus if the idea gains traction.

...a "sampling of students"!

Not this sample, I guess...

Some students on campus yesterday — even non-smokers — weren’t supportive of curtailing smoking, though.

“I don’t even notice it,” said senior Michelle Beecoff, who doesn’t smoke. “A couple of my friends are smokers – I know they’d be pretty pissed.”

“We’re in college,” said junior Alyssa DeAngelo, also a non-smoker. “They shouldn’t be banning it.”

Let me guess what happens!

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Nick Clegg is wrong about black students....

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...but sadly he completely misrepresents the educational achievements of Britain's ethnic minorities:

What Mr Clegg is claiming:

Nick Clegg will today warn that hundreds more young black men are in jail than at top universities, in an explosive attack on race relations in Britain.

And what the proper facts say:

Based on detailed analysis of both the Office of National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey and the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s ‘HESA Student Record’, the report, ‘Race into Higher Education’, sets out how almost one in six (16.0%) of UK university students are from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background. This is up from 8.3% in 1995-96, the year in which Business in the Community founded Race for Opportunity. This increase is virtually in line with the growth in the BAME population from 7.7% of 18 to 24 year olds in 1995-96 up to 14% in 2007-08.

Even if we assume that the Russell Group universities do less well - say 10% from BAME communities - that's still 16,000 black students. If they achieve at 16%, that's over 25,000 black students - more that the 22,000 black people in our prisons.  The UK's student population as a whole is well over 2 million - meaning that there are at least 400,000 black students. This is four times the size of the entire prison population.

So Nick's just using carefully crafted statistics to mislead us. Typical Liberal Democrat!

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Spain - not a revolution just democracy!

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A great deal of gushing left-wing excitement is littering the web as assorted commentators, bloggers and tweeters get all “oooh, gosh, revolution” about some protests in Madrid. Protests that coincide with today’s municipal elections across the country.

Here a pretty typical example:

The demonstrators have had enough of a political system that fails to represent them, one that restricts their power to expressing a preference every few years for one identikit professional politician or another. This is a far more radical politics. This is a crisis of confidence in democracy under capitalism when the failure of the free-markets is being used as an excuse to extend their poisonous reach.

Well maybe they have but, in truth, there aren’t very many of them are there! A bit like UK Uncut we get a lot of froth and noise, a bit of wanton destruction and some ace sloganising – all of which zooms past the ordinary voter more bothered about their job, the kids’ education and the level of crime. At their peak with a social media whirlwind of promotion and support the protester mustered about 30,000 in Madrid and similar protests in other Spanish cities brought out barely 10,000.

Meanwhile the Spanish voters are setting about visiting the worst defeat on the Socialists since the return of democracy – exit polls are suggesting the PSOE has lost control of Barcelona for the first time in 32 years and this indicates that it will be a pretty dire night for the Spanish left.  And the winners will not be strange coalitions of protesting pseudo-anarchists, bored students or green agitators but the opposition parties – the centre-right, Partido Popular and the assortment of separatist and regionalist groups that make up Spanish politics.

Some 12 million or so Spaniards have taken part in real democracy today – electing councillors, mayors and regional assemblies. Tens of thousands of Spaniards have actively campaigned in support of favoured candidates, thousands have put their name forward for election and millions have discussed and debated what should happen. The people protesting in Madrid are put a small part of this debate – it isn’t a revolution, it’s just the untidiness of democracy in action.

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Theresa, can we get a little perspective please?

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We had some riots. A few people were injured but probably fewer than are injured on a typical Friday night in Leeds or Manchester. There was some offensive but temporary damage to a couple of statues as a result of students being a brainless and stupid as students have been wont to be down the years. And the Duchess of Cornwall had a stick prodded at her.

As far as I know, nobody's dead. No-one's been abducted. Normal life - or what purports to be normal life continues. It's no big deal. There will be another protest sometime with much the same result - more froth and bother than anything of substance.

So can I make one thing very clear....

We do not need water cannon.

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What are we marching for?

There seems to have been a great deal of protesting going on recently. We have had a few thousand of Britain’s 2 million or so students meandering and (in a very few cases) marauding around London and, more recently, the somewhat strange activities of UK “uncut” in targeting retailers like Vodaphone and Top Shop - and I gather now Carphone Warehouse - because they don’t pay enough tax.

It seems to me that, while the idea of protest can be appealing, we should think through what we’re protesting about and why before we set about taking to the streets. And those who seek to give intellectual succour to the protesters must do likewise. Here’s the usually thoughtful Julian Dobson allowing the ‘spirit of ‘68’ to get the better of him:

The protestors don’t just exemplify civic engagement. They are also paragons of self-help. They get off their butts and get things done, using their time and resources for causes they care about. They share food and money. And while some of the slogans are tired, there are also examples of imagination and creativity.

But, Julian, what are they protesting about? And what exactly are they “getting done” – other than a temporary annoyance to the targeted business or those trying to go about their regular lives?

On the face of it the protests are pretty straightforward – you (insert name of chosen bloated plutocrat) must pay more tax so we (insert special interest group) can have whatever it is we are demanding provided for us by the Government - “free”.

These are the protests of the greedy against the greedy – groups of people who think it perfectly OK to club together so as to take more money off a particular group of people. People who don’t see that it’s just as much greed to argue for higher taxes to provide something you’ll benefit from as it is to seek to maximise profit and minimise tax (and probably of less social benefit).

However, there is something rather worse than the desire to take other people’s money for our own benefit. These protestors are campaigning for the right to be sheep – to continue being supplicants at the altar of the state. The campaigning students and occupying protestors are not agents of some greater liberty but servants of the big state – creatures of dependence not beacons of liberty. They want a bigger state, higher taxes and more regulation because they want the cuddly comfort zone that brings. The protestors don’t just want something for nothing, they want others fined to pay for that something and a state that rocks them gently in its cradle.

These protests are not the anger of the revolution – regardless of their chosen rhetoric – but the redoubt of those frightened by the prospect of liberty. Scared of self-service, caught in the bright headlights of personal responsibility. These protests are cries from those who fear losing their privileges and comforts.

These are not protests for freedom but the plaintive bleating of sheep trapped on the wrong side of the fence.

Not my fight.

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Ah memories....

"Tory scum" echoes the (ever so slightly posh) voice behind the presenter.

"Tory scum"

Tears sprang to my eyes at the memory of that cry - so often directed towards me back in the days! I could picture the cry of the trot, newspapers in hand...

"Fight the cuts, fight the Tories. SO-cialist Worker"

There would be the sleek John Rees - resplendent in his expensive bomber jacket and faux-palestinian scarf - crying the cry of the activist. A cry made louder as we tore up his foul rag before his eyes.

Ah, memories of student protest. Of the grand fights against "cuts". Of the struggle, the organising, the mobilising. The memory of the Communist student official who ran a campaign calling for us to vote for him to get:

"More n-n-n-nutty campaigning"

So thank you students for reminding me of those days. I didn't agree with you back then when I was a student and I don't agree with you now.

...but the memories are good!

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Look, you puritans, students want to have some fun - and a drink!

Now I know he has just packed his precious daughter off to college but this article by Max Davidson in the Sunday Telegraph is truly, unutterably awful. It's inaccurate, stigmatises students, assumes they're all drunken louts and credits none of them with a modicum of common.

Davidson is wrong. The students I know are pleasant, hard-working, interested and yes, occasionally they get drunk and have a good time. Get used Max.