Kathleen Stock and Laurence Fox are testing the bounds of free speech. I know who I side with

Free speech protects great minds discussing ideas, not small minds abusing people, says George Pitcher, as he looks at the recent cases of Laurence Fox and Kathleen Stock

Eleanor Roosevelt is supposed to have said that “great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” The verb “discuss” is doing a good deal of heavy-lifting here, but this week has provided two perfect examples of minds at both ends of the gene pool.

At the shallow end of that pool, we have an actor, Laurence Fox, who has taken on the tough role of contrarian politico-activist, in which it would only be polite to say he is far from convincing. At the deep end, we have Professor Kathleen Stock, whose hounding from her post in 2021 over expressed transgender and gender identification views has caused the academic regulator to fine the University of Sussex close to £600,000.

We needn’t dwell on the unfantastic Mr Fox. It’s in the nature of small minds to believe they’re playing in the deep end, discussing ideas, when in reality they are simply attacking people. Thus he has been charged with a sexual offence by publishing a tawdry “upskirting image” of TV presenter Narinder Kaur. He has form in this regard, he isn’t big, he isn’t clever and he needs to be taken back indoors until he learns to behave.

By contrast, Prof Stock does discuss ideas as part of her academic endeavour and, oddly enough, discusses ideas of gender with which Mr Fox may agree. The difference is, so far as one can tell, that she is not attacking individuals. It appears that the university…