The Conservative Party’s free speech reforms are staggeringly hypocritical

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy We learnt this week that Boris Johnson’s government will be introducing new measures to strengthen free speech at universities, even creating a role called the “Free Speech and Academic Freedom Champion”. Now, I agree with the parts of the government’s proposals, which state that free speech and the ability to put forward controversial ideas that challenge established thinking are essential in universities. It’s weird that a “Free Speech Champion” would be tasked with protecting against academic criticism. How can a government that censors the facts in schools, got elected on a four year campaign of disinformation, treats environmentalists as enemies of the state, denies voting rights to young people because they would vote against them, seeks to deliberately restrict the media to conservative reporting, and whose rhetoric leads to racist attacks, be trusted to find the right balance between free speech, misinformation, and hate speech?