Oh! What a lovely culture war

The latest Higher Education Policy Institute publication hits the nail on the head of what we are obliged to call the free speech debate.

In case anyone has not looked out of the window recently, there is a culture war going on. The days when Playbook used to warn ministers that the careless use of language could have unforeseen consequences in British universities have long gone—and that was only 12 months ago.

The debate, if that is what it is, over free speech in universities has only been a test bed for a wider social contest that is now occupying every nook and cranny of the public realm. Universities were the canary in the coal mine.