To round off a rather political tone this week, I’d like to draw your attention to British Universities and the current debates being channeled through such institutions. Currently at the University of Sussex; an institution which some agree that I should be privileged to attend (but otherwise I am not so sure); a debate is raging over whether the controversial British political party the BNP should be allowed to air their views on the campus facilities.

Sussex with its long tradition as proprietors of free speech, seems to have finally realized the limitations of adhering to something which in truth can only be an ideological concept. A society in which there is complete freedom of speech, is something that can never surely be realized as long as it continues to remain pluralized and variegated. In saying ‘we are for freedom of speech, but this voice shall remain silenced’, is there not a slight return to the totalitarian repudiations that the University is guarding against so fervently in the first place?

For those of you who don’t know your BNP from your B&B, the BNP is a party which runs on largely fascist principles. Although distancing themselves from the stereotypical racism one might come to expect, a strong sense of xenophobia and fear of racial mixing is propagated by the party’s assertions. It is important that we hear their voice in order to determine what is wrong and what is right; if such voices are repressed and sentiments ignored, do we not then come in line with their own strategies of authoritarian control and silencing the voice of the minority?