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6 August 2023. By Nigel Biggar for The Telegraph. The Government’s combative response to the recent Coutts’ de-banking of Nigel Farage on “progressive” political grounds suggests that Rishi Sunak is committed to the war against wokery. And so he should be, for three good reasons…. The culture war is no ‘concoction’; it’s a real danger…
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By Nigel Biggar for Compact. 2 February 2023. It was the second week of December 2017, and my wife and I were at Heathrow airport, waiting to board a flight to Germany. Just before setting off for the departure gate, I couldn’t resist checking my email just one last time. My attention concentrated when I…
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The threat to academic freedom is no myth. Nigel Biggar makes this clear in his recent comment for The Telegraph (8 August 2020). Biggar’s “Political discrimination should be as unacceptable as racism at universities” highlights the problems at UK universities, where discrimination in political matters not only remains unfair but also disproportionately marginalises, and silences, conservative views. His…
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The creation of the non-partisan Free Speech Union, which was launched by Toby Young at the end of February, was inspired by the May 2019 McDonald Centre annual conference, ‘Academic Freedom under Threat: What’s to be Done?‘. Chairman of the FSU’s board of directors (here), Nigel Biggar, has argued in a recent Times article (24 February 2020) that the FSU is…
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In The Times 10 February 2020 Letter to the Editor, Nigel Biggar challenged his readers, and Education Secretary Sir Gavin Williamson, ‘to dispel the climate of self-censorship and inner exile’ and to champion moral and political viewpoint diversity in Universities. Editor of The Article Daniel Johnson offered a response to Biggar (read his ‘Universities need more intellectual and political diversity, as…
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Reflecting on a recent trip to Hong Kong, and the protests that spilled into its streets, Nigel Biggar raises questions about the limits of democratic elections to bring political well-being–‘votes,’ after all, ‘can’t be any wiser than the voters’. Yet rule of law and a free press are institutions thought essential for fostering political trust between…
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Nigel Biggar has offered comment on the decision by Cambridge University to withdraw the invitation for Jordan Peterson to join the Divinity Faculty as a term-limited visiting fellow: Please read Biggar’s 02 April 2019 “Cambridge and the exclusion of Jordan Peterson” contribution to The Article here. Biggar’s “Cambridge has double standards on free speech”, a contribution to the Thunderer at The…
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Nigel Biggar has offered comment on the Cambridge University decision to investigate its historical links to slavery in the 04 May 2019 weekend essay of The Times. Biggar argued, in part, ‘Whatever wrongs happened in the distant past, the fog of history makes it impossible to determine who deserves compensation for the slave trade’. He concluded by encouraging Cambridge to…
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Commenting on the present crisis of herd morality and the policing of public rationalities that constrain content-full discourse and illuminating debate around issues of identity, sexuality, and the like, Nigel Biggar opened his recent contribition to UnHerd, and their ‘Groupthink’ theme, with these words: We need to talk about ‘discrimination’, ‘homophobia’, and ‘identity’. In fact, we need to rethink them.…
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In an opinion article published in The Times last week, Nigel Biggar argues that public debate over the social recognition of different identities, and of gender identity in particular, has gone too far.