In its 93 years of existence, the National Union of Students (NUS) has engaged in periodic bouts of irrelevant ideological grandstanding. It has now descended from inconsequence to ignominy. At a conference this week it pledged to campaign against counterterrorism legislation “alongside civil liberties groups including Cage”.
It’s vital to debate the balance between public safety and personal freedom. The pressure group Cage has exactly no role to play in it, however, because it isn’t a civil liberties group. It is a megaphone for Islamist extremists who have contempt for the values of a free society.
As the NUS complains that “demonising ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ can and is being used to target anyone who dissents from the unjust, oppressive and exploitative state of society”, I’m