{"id":331877,"date":"2017-10-24T12:44:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T11:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/mccarthyite-tories-ask-universities-to-hand-over-brexit-teaching-materials-rt-uk-news\/"},"modified":"2017-10-24T12:44:27","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T11:44:27","slug":"mccarthyite-tories-ask-universities-to-hand-over-brexit-teaching-materials-rt-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/mccarthyite-tories-ask-universities-to-hand-over-brexit-teaching-materials-rt-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018McCarthyite\u2019 Tories ask universities to hand over Brexit teaching materials \u2014 RT UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>        A bizarre letter issued to all British universities by the government whip has sparked a backlash among top academics. The correspondence called on all institutions to name their \u201cEuropean affairs\u201d professors and hand over course materials about Brexit.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Heaton-Harris, government whip and MP for Davenry, also asked universities to send links to online lectures so that the government could monitor what is being taught.<\/p>\n<p>Academic staff have accused Downing Street of\u00a0<em>\u201cMcCarthyite\u201d<\/em>\u00a0tactics and refused to cooperate with the requests. Lecturers said they would not act as the\u00a0<em>\u201cthought police\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and would teach Brexit as they see fit, insisting that they would never get into the practice of propaganda.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI was wondering if you would be so kind as to supply me with the names of professors at your establishment who are involved in the teaching of European affairs, with particular reference to Brexit,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the letter said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/407551-tony-blair-brexit-plot\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2017.10\/thumbnail\/59ee102bfc7e93b54a8b4567.jpg\" alt=\"Tony Blair has called for a second Brexit referendum after Brussels and Britain agree divorce \u00a9 Reuters\/ Francois Lenoir\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>\u201cFurthermore, 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. I sincerely hope you are able to provide me with such and I look forwards to hearing from you in due course.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Professors have refused to comply. Thom Brooks, dean of Durham Law School openly refused to co-operate.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cLet me make something clear,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI will NOT be answering his request. We\u2019re a university. Not thought police.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Professor David Green, vice-chancellor of Worcester University, also refused to provide the information. He said he felt a chill down his spine when he read the\u00a0<em>\u201csinister\u201d<\/em>\u00a0letter.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThis letter just asking for information appears so innocent but is really so, so dangerous,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHere is the first step to the thought police, the political censor and newspeak, naturally justified as \u2018the will of the British people,\u2019 a phrase to be found on Mr Heaton-Harris\u2019s website.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Alan Macleod, lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Leeds, said the MP would need to pay tuition fees like his students to get the information.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rHUE0Go6hFc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIf Chris Heaton-Harris wants to know what I teach about #Brexit he\u2019ll need to cough up \u00a39,250,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he joked on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Bernal, senior law lecturer at the University of East Anglia (UEA), said:<em>\u00a0\u201cMaybe we should all send #HeatonHarris our notes, slides and materials. If he actually read them he might understand the impact of Brexit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Even pro-Brexit academics working in this area are unhappy with the MP.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt is really troubling that an MP thinks it is within his remit to start poking his nose into university teaching,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0pro-Brexit lecturer Lee Jones, reader in international politics at Queen Mary University of London, told The Guardian.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rtcode\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Why is Chris Heaton-Harris MP writing to university Vice-Chancellors demanding to know who is teaching what about Brexit on degree courses? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/d58NVhUJPI\">pic.twitter.com\/d58NVhUJPI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Otto English (@Otto_English) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Otto_English\/status\/922748348511158273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 24, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>\u201cUniversities are autonomous and politicians have no right to intimidate academics by scrutinizing their courses. I have colleagues who are die-hard Remainers. But I know what they teach and it is not propaganda.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The government was previously accused of Brexit censorship when the Electoral Commission made inquiries about the debates and research being conducted by professors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/407614-brexit-letter-heaton-harris\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bizarre letter issued to all British universities by the government whip has sparked a backlash among top academics. The correspondence called on all institutions to name their \u201cEuropean affairs\u201d professors and hand over course materials about Brexit. Chris Heaton-Harris, government whip and MP for Davenry, also asked universities to send links to online lectures [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-331877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}