Reform, Refreshers and Real Freedom of Expression

Something interesting is happening at University of Sussex.

Today was Refreshers Fair, where student societies put on stalls to recruit new members for the coming term. It's pretty standard university activity and I was there on a stall with my Forest Garden Society.

What made this refreshers fair different was the participation of a brand new student society at Sussex: Reform Society. Their presence had become known over the past month or so, with a protest organised by students to remove their name from existence.

That protest was held today - it was peaceful and a fairly typical anti-facist gathering at Library Square. Reform Society had a stall reserved for them, and the university protects their right to exist. The stakes are doubly high, as the university are battling the case of Kathleen Stock: appealing a £500,000 fine they received over their alleged breech of free speech.

The media are interested in Sussex - Talk radio were on campus today and GB news apparently spotted in the Sports Hall car park. Reform Society, however, were nowhere to be seen. They had put out a message saying they didn't feel safe to come to Refreshers Fair. I've heard they were around campus though, speaking to GB News.

I don't think they ever planned on coming to Refreshers Fair. They knew there'd be a campus protest & it could feed very nicely into a narrative of them as the victims - free speech 'warriors' in the great battle against 'wokeness'. It's easy to cast Sussex in this light - Kathleen Stock has done so quite successfully.

But something interesting is happening at the University of Sussex.

When I arrived at Refreshers Fair this morning, a student I knew came up to me and told me they were planning a protest. Immediately, I thought they were talking about the anti-facist protest in library square. I wasn't that interested; I thought it would only play into Reform 'victim' narrative. But then they said:

"I'm organising something different." A walk-out of societies at 12.30 to express their love, solidarity and belief in all the things Reform stand against combined with an anti-facist open mic. The students of Reform Society were welcome. It was still protest, but it was constructive, creative and holding space for dialogue and political compassion.

12.30 came and ... not many societies walked out. I'm proud that Forest Garden Society did, and music was played, along with speeches and a petition against discrimination. Students gathered round and there was real joy out there this afternoon at Sussex: a glimpse of a way forward.

For, away from the media portrayal of Brighton as a 'woke capital', there's plenty of Reform-supporting people in our city. And if we continue as we are, Farage will be PM in 2029.

Today, I'm proud that students of Sussex offered constructive, creative protest to the creeping threat of fascism & a counter to Reform's 'woke victim' narrative.

That's real freedom of expression.