If you want to know what Reform would be like in power, look at how it threatened Bangor University

Good one Allira. Home Economics. Made me chuckle.

You’re talking as though you think the subjects they discuss should be dictated to them Galaxy, which surprises me. If they want to debate the merits of lefthandedness for tennis players rather than Reform policies, that is entirely up to them, surely?

It is worth pointing out from the OP, that Reform requested a question and answer session with Sarah Pochin.
That is not and never has been the format of a university debate.
Would she have wanted a proper debate? I very much doubt it.

I meant how Anderson arrived at the 30p. They got a pro chef into the local FE college to do a Ready Steady Cook challenge. £50 of ingredients. They served the food to staff and students in tiny paper cups. They got 175 helpings of a couple of spoonfuls each. £50/175 is just under 30p. That’s where Anderson’s claim of being able to cook a meal for 30p came from.

Sorry. This is derailing. Back to the Reform party stooge known as Zia Yusuf. A reminder of how he came to be involved in Reform.

Before Farage parachuted back in to dupe the voters of Clacton, the Reform company was technically insolvent. It was only afloat because Tice had loaned it over a million pounds which the company couldn’t repay. Along comes Yusuf with a £250,000 donation paid straight to Tice as part of the loan repayment on the understanding that Tice give up the chair in favour of Yusuf. He held the post for a year, then had his famous two-day “Why am I wasting my time?” flounce and now David Bull is chair.

Remember what the argument was at the time? Yusuf had criticised Sarah Pochin after she urged the PM to ban the burka "in the interests of public safety" Yusuf said it was "dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn't do. A burka ban is not Reform party policy.”

Isn’t this the same kind argument now being made over university funding? Yusuf shouting his mouth off about something that isn’t policy … when, as you say LJ, he is literally Head of Policy.

It’ll be something else next week. After Zahawi’s idiotic media round, Reform are considering an income tax on being tired. Working title TIT. A pilot scheme will be trialed in London, starting at a gentle 10% for looking like you haven’t slept for a week, 20% for looking like you haven’t slept for two weeks and so on. There will be a surcharge if, while being tired, you inadvertently frighten a minor attention-seeking Belgravia-dwelling MP who is forced to swerve into the road and falls down a pothole.

Home Economics would be a good fit for Mr Anderson, Allira!
Perhaps he could encourage universities to develop a graduate level course, and a Masters, and then a potential for a PhD
...

No debate it is a real advantage, my son is a left handed tennis player.
I think if you then make accusations such as transphobic that moves the conversation a bit, as I say that slur was levied at many women. I do wonder if they would want to debate streeting for example, he has been treated terribly for his alleged 'transphobia'.

I don’t see that any dictating will be at all effective… no one has to attend debates. Reform needs to calm down? Of course debating societies set their own topics. Casdon

I don’t know or care what they debate, my point was that it’s up to them entirely to decide, in my opinion. I’m sure you’re right about left handed tennis players by the way!

Home Economics has been labelled Food Technology for the last few decades. 😉

Exactly Casdon, university student debating societies should not be dictated by Reform, or anyone else as to what they discuss and who they invite to their debates. If a well organised society they may have already chosen debate topics and have already sent out invitations and accepted speakers for this academic year.

Currently the UK is a democracy- I for one do not want a Reform government challenging democracy and seeking to enforce any authoritarian regime on universities in a similar way we have seen in the US with Trump.

The replacement course for Home Economics is called a GCSE in Food Preparation and Nutrition, Food Technology is a different GCSE. I suspect the underlying issue is that so many schools no longer have the facilities to teach it.

As I say it sounds very much how many feminists were treated. Especially the accusations of transphobia that have no impact on anyone anymore.

I know it’s a long time ago, but I was in the debating society, and we discussed the daftest topics - the point was the debating process - and the wackier the subject the more students turned up, it was great fun, and taught us the art of debate, which can be applied to any subject.

Galaxy

As I say it sounds very much how many feminists were treated. Especially the accusations of transphobia that have no impact on anyone anymore.

So are you saying that debates run by students should be controlled to reduce the risk of a repeat of that? Sorry, I’m unclear what you are getting at here?

I hope universities have turned a corner generally. Jordan Peterson, I think was re invited to Cambridge recently, after they originally caved to protests.

I think it is a complex subject, I thought one of the most worrying things I once heard was when a university refused the presence of a pro life organisation at their freshers fayre, I am pro choice. It just keeps us all in our own 'silos' if you know what I mean.

That was completely different though Galaxy, he was offered a fellowship by one of the departments of the university, which the students protested about. It wasn’t their own society, run by them for fellow students.

I don’t know what you mean, no. I think student run groups are very different to the running of. University by employees.

I think it is all part of an inability for people to be in the presence of people they disagree with, I don't think I can do anything to enforce it, but I think it has a detrimental effect on society.

People and groups are surely free to discuss whatever they like in their own time if they organise it themselves. Other people choose themselves whether to turn up or not. I don’t think it’s something we should wish to control?

Casdon

People and groups are surely free to discuss whatever they like in their own time if they organise it themselves. Other people choose themselves whether to turn up or not. I don’t think it’s something we should wish to control?

Of course we shouldn't wish to control.
But we've heard too often of instances where a previously invited speaker has been un-invited because a group of students don't want anybody to hear that speaker's views, and it's considered dangerous to continue. Surely that equally is not something we should endorse, control by one lot of students on another?

I think it’s the people who run any group voluntarily that should make the decision. Pressure on them by others to do things in a different way is something they should be free to accept or not, but ultimately the committee of volunteers should make the decision.

Rosie51 14.14 "Of course we shouldn't wish to control.
But we've heard too often of instances where a previously invited speaker has been un-invited because a group of students don't want anybody to hear that speaker's views, and it's considered dangerous to continue. Surely that equally is not something we should endorse, control by one lot of students on another?"

That not what happened at Bangor University. I believe a university debating society, in a democratic country, should not be commanded/coerced/controlled by any government or political party. Political parties/governments in the UK have long allowed universities educational freedom- I would not want to vote for any party that seeks to change this freedom.

Your subject matter "previously invited speaker has been un-invited because a group of students don't want anybody to hear that speaker's views, (do you mean censorship?) and it's considered dangerous to continue" is a different topic. A thread about 'censorship', if thats what you are alluding to, seems like a separate thread as this one is specifically about the risk of Reform exerting authoritarian control and risk of university defunding due to none compliance if elected into government
2 VERY different issues.

It is about a culture within universities so it is perfectly fine to talk about it.
I also just smile about people worrying now about free speech when there is a risk that it is reform who 'controls' the speech.

I think you are putting words into peoples mouths there. The principle of a student group, or any voluntary group, being told what it should or shouldn’t talk about by any other body is what is wrong.