Academics are accusing a Tory MP and government whip of “McCarthyite” behaviour, after he wrote to all universities asking them to declare what they are teaching their students about Brexit and to provide a list of teachers’ names

Sinister’: UK academics balk at request for lists of Brexit professors

Academics have reacted angrily to a “sinister” attempt by a pro-Brexit Conservative MP to find out the names of professors teaching courses on Brexit and to gain access to their online syllabuses.

Chris Heaton-Harris, a government whip and former MEP, wrote to university leaders earlier this month in an attempt to find out more about the nature of European affairs courses being taught in Britain.

“I was wondering if you would be so kind as to supply me with the names of professors in your establishment who are involved in the teaching of European affairs with particular reference to Brexit,” he wrote to David Green, vice-chancellor of Worcester University.

The letter, obtained by The Guardian, added: “”Further if I could be provided with a copy of the syllabus and links to the online lectures which relate to this area, I would be much obliged.”

Prof Green said he felt a chill down his spine when he read the “sinister” request and that he would not be providing Mr Heaton-Harris with the information.

“This letter just asking for information appears so innocent but is really so, so dangerous,” he said. “Here is the first step to the thought police, the political censor and newspeak, naturally justified as ‘the will of the British people’, a phrase to be found on Mr Heaton-Harris’s website.”

Brexit supporters have been critical of those in the “establishment” who they believe are obstructing or trying to undermine the result of the June 2016 EU referendum.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson criticised the Financial Times and The Economist over their supposedly negative coverage of Brexit in his Tory conference speech this month, while the judiciary has also come in for criticism.

The Daily Mail hailed Theresa May’s decision to call a snap general election in April as a device for pushing through Brexit under the headline: “Crush the saboteurs.”

Mr Heaton-Harris was unavailable for comment.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, warned that society would suffer “if politicians seek to police what universities can and cannot teach”.

“This attempt by Chris Heaton-Harris to compile a hit list of professors has the acrid whiff of McCarthyism about it and [universities minister] Jo Johnson must disown it in the strongest terms,” she said. “Our universities and colleges must lead the way in defending academic freedom, where received wisdom can be challenged and controversial ideas debated.”

We haven't left the EU yet. Wait until businesses start planning for FY 2019/2020.

Also, worst case scenario hard brexit means planes literally cannot land in the UK (amongst a myriad of other disasters) and I find it incredibly hard to believe that that doomsday scenario has been costed in at this point.

No deal is better than a bad deal

I wonder why they still won't publish their sectorial impact assessments? Too many spoilers?

Of course, the BBC immediately spins this as being bad news because interest rates will probably rise off their 0.25%

Do you just want articles on how lovely cake is and nobody needs to worry about getting fat and dying?

I'd like articles on how lovely cake is.

0.4% may be better than predicted (by 0.1%) but it's still worse than pretty much every other major world economy, so it seems odd to be describing it as healthy growth.

Also, worst case scenario hard brexit means planes literally cannot land in the UK (amongst a myriad of other disasters) and I find it incredibly hard to believe that that doomsday scenario has been costed in at this point.

I'm absolutely gutted no-one will be able to land their plane in the UK from 2019 onwards.

Or take off as we're replacing runways with conveyor belts.

Or take off as we're replacing runways with conveyor belts.

I'm absolutely gutted no-one will be able to land their plane in the UK from 2019 onwards.

I'd like articles on how lovely cake is.

Hehe, I agree! Beats endless grievance chimp-mongering any day of the week, let's have a bit of positivity.

Be as sarcastic as you like, but that's what worst case hard brexit is.

Most countries haven't released Q3 figures yet, but the Q1 and Q2 figures are terrible.

https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=350

I'm not comparing us to China, I'm comparing us to Greece, Belgium, Colombia, Slovenia!

You tell me you think our GDP growth for 2017 is healthy based on our ranking in that table, you're powerfully deluding yourself. And short of the rest of the world having suffered a massive recession we didn't notice, that 0.1% upgrade in Q3 isn't going to be an improvement on what's already there for Q1 and Q2.

The truth is that Davis' talk of no-deal is a bluff. No-one in their right mind would ever countenance it. The trouble with this bluff is that everyone can see it: the MPs on the committee, the public watching on TV, and the negotiators in Brussels. No matter how elegantly he describes the angle of the barrel, everyone can see he is holding the gun to his own head

I do like Ian Dunt.

http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2017/10 ... of-no-deal

Well, yes, I should think Mr Dunt is concerned about the status of his return flight from his 2019 jollies. Who can blame him?

You seem to be treating the grounding of all the flights like it's something that couldn't happen.

It could, but I don't think it will. However, it's likely to cost £gazillion to fix.

The aeroplanes thing is a useful example of the complexity of what the government's policy entails. All these really tiny issues that most people outside a particular sector don't know or care about that's all entangled with the EU which the government will have to unpick and consider in order to keep the country functioning. Only to replace it with the exact same thing because you can't deviate too far from the European or international standard.

Yup, imagine having to get the ferry.
(I'm sorry, I just can't take this seriously. I'll leave you to your doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom mongering now, I just wanted to point out the latest good growth data in spite of aforesaid dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom).