A kick from the Left

In the opinion piece “Attitude is everything” (21 May), Diana Beech explains why she voted Conservative in the general election, citing the belligerence of the Left’s intelligentsia”. She obviously has ruder colleagues and friends than I do, but the assumptions made are similar. I guess it depends partly on the subject area and partly on the institution. Perhaps it would be equally unpleasant to be a political minority in an industry full of right-wing people. But I agree with Beech that this aggression and narrow-mindedness is disappointing in a sector where liberals claim to be in favour of diverse, open, self-critical and civilised discourse. It’s something one experiences outside of election campaigns, too, and is bizarrely justified as the academy being a last bulwark against the neoliberal hordes. Which only confirms how irrelevant academic leftism is becoming. Oh, and I voted Labour by the way.

Charlie Beckett
Via timeshighereducation.co.uk