The Londoner: Storm over ‘basic errors’ in uni free speech report

In today's Diary: Academics at war over freedom of speech / Caroline Criado-Perez's follow-up to Invisible Women / Boris Johnson's ratings among Tories slide / Sir Nicholas Soames unleashes a hashtag
4 August 2020

A report that claims free speech at university is under threat is “of very bad quality” and contains “absolutely basic statistical errors”, according to a professor at King’s College London.

“The headline claim — that 32 per cent of Right-wing academics ‘self-censor’ — seems to be based on no more than about 10 responses from current academics,” says Professor Jonathan Portes.

Policy Exchange’s report said nearly a third of academics with “Right” or “fairly Right” political views no longer reveal those opinions in teaching and research. For those on the Left this figure is as low as 13 per cent, the report claimed. The poll was conducted by YouGov. Professor Patrick Sturgis, who works on quantitative social science at the LSE, said problems with the sample size of the poll meant the report’s claims were “embarrassing”, as too few working academics were interviewed.

Eric Kaufmann, one of the report’s authors, hit back on Twitter, saying this was “grasping at straws”. A Policy Exchange spokesman told The Londoner “the poll, which is one of the biggest of its kind, uses standard techniques with which both the media and the public are familiar.”

Ivory towers at war.

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London Zoo is looking for an army of volunteers as it struggles to cope with the impact of coronavirus. Volunteers would need to commit half a day every fortnight to help guide visitors around the new one-way paths at the Regent’s Park zoo. Volunteer manager Rhiannon Green told the Camden New Journal they were looking for “cheery, flexible people”.

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Getty Images for The World Aroun

Feminist campaigner and author Caroline Criado Perez is writing a follow-up to her bestseller Invisible Women. Now You See Us: How to Close the Data Gap and Design A World for Everyone will be published by Chatto & Windus in 2022. The author says she gets asked: “How do we fix this? What can we do?” — and “Now You See Us is my answer”.

SW1A

Bad news for the Prime Minister as his approval ratings among true-blue Tories over his handling of the Covid-19 crisis have fallen for the third month in a row.

In March, 92 per cent of ConservativeHome panel members thought that he had dealt with the crisis well. That’s now down to 59 per cent. If it’s any consolation, support for Chancellor Rishi Sunak has also fallen, all the way from 92 per cent to 81 per cent.

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Churchill’s grandson Sir Nicholas Soames had a strong response to a tweet from Donald Trump captured in one of his infamous lengthy hashtags: “#youareatrulypatheticnarcisssssticneedytwerparentyoumeanttobePOTUS?” Untangle that! If Trump wins, not sure Sir Nicholas will be part of the trade negotiations.

Lily and pals blend in as Billie glows green

Lily Allen or James Bond? The pop star showed off her summer camouflage as she blended in with friends and mannequins on the Amalfi coast. Elsewhere, Clara Amfo was all smiles as she prepared to stand in for Sara Cox on Radio 1, Nick Grimshaw grimaced as boyfriend Meshach Henry planted a kiss (adding “love him really”), and Billie Eilish glowered under a green light.

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