Reinstate Free Speech at the University of Edinburgh

I am increasingly shocked by the way free speech, and therefore free expression, is being eroded by those who should be the guardians of it. Free speech is the ultimate freedom on which all other freedoms depend and to which all other freedoms, including that of possible offence, should be secondary.

I'm certainly not wealthy but you can forget any possibility of future endowments until this is rectified.

Do not sway in the flighty whims of a passing wind. Hold Fast to freedom of thought and give your students the strength to handle a storm. You do them no service by sheltering them from the ways of the world.

I believe in free speech of all kind that we should not be denied our right as a society to voice our opinions no matter how damaging it might be.

Modern society has gone mad with stifling free speech in case *someone* gets mildly offended by it. It makes a mockery of students & the student union to be the national news over hand gestures taken to be in a negative fashion! GROW UP, TOUGHEN UP, ACCEPT LIFE CAN BE UNFAIR

9 years ago Featured

As a former student of Edinburgh University I am ashamed that a place I hold dear to my heart has begun to endorse censorship of unpopular opinions and over zealous offense taking as policy. This is not what a place of higher learning should aspire to.

As an Edinburgh alumnus, I am shocked and appalled that my alma mater is engaging in the suppression of free speech and I urge the university to take a stand to protect this essential liberty.

Well done with your fight back for free speech. What a shame students have to defend free speech from their own universities. Courage is not among the virtues most common to the academic profession.

'Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties' - John Milton

This safe space mentality indulges a pathetic narcissism and will only breed a weak and incurious generation incapable of progressing to adult life.

They should have never taken it away

What an absolute terrible way for a University to handle a sensitive situation. You have given into the demands of those that are prohibiting from being educated about an issue that has many sides to it. I am appalled and I am now convinced there is no such thing as higher learning. Now our educational system is saying appeasing is more important than teaching. What a joke

Wish I could do more, but starting here will do.

Member of Heriot watt university however hate the whole concept of "safe space" and will use any platform to speak out against it

'no-platforming', 'safe spaces' and 'trigger warnings' - where will it end? This is political correctness gone mad. Restore the respectful give and take of free speech and stop mollycoddling oversensitive students who cannot take the cut and thrust of reality.

This is Scotland, get that sh*te out of our Universities before it gets a whole lot worse!

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I wholeheartedly support this petition, and would be very glad to get involved in the cause. Perhaps Charlie Peters or others could suggest what I might be able to do. (I live in Edinburgh and am an alumnus.)

The safe space idea simply goes too far--to an extreme that violates the very ideal of free and open debate it was intended to protect.

Censorship by another name, free thinking and free speech