Sir Tim Hunt is the victim of the times we live in

WHERE SIR TIM HUNT, the Nobel scientist, was wrong in what he said, was in saying it in public. In terms of what he said it may have sounded mildly sexist; and should have only outraged the fanatical feminist students of the type who seem to rule over Oxford University like the stasi at the moment; spying upon fellow students male and female alike. But even in this climate of the liberal auto-da-fé, where political correctness has leached into the very depths of our democracy, the mildness of Sir Tim's remarks should not have lead to him losing his position at University College London (UCL).

            

                   Now eight laureates have come to Sir Tim's defence, and also Richard Dawkins has waded in on his behalf. What was it he said that lost him his position? He observed ‘Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. 

Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them, they cry.’

               

                I imagine that both female students and their male tutors each develop feelings for the other and both are at an age when, if their feelings get the better of them, they can handle the result. But I think the remark by Sir Tim that has caused such an outcry is the patronising observation he makes that, emotionally speaking, women are the weaker sex; i.e. '… and when you criticise them, they cry.’

                I think this is the crux of the matter: It was this remark, the feminists and their neutered liberal male friends objected to. Now an eminent scientist has been dismissed from his university because of this piece of fluff.

                Things are getting out of hand – free speech and free opinions held are daily being stultified by academia, judges, human rights lawyers, and politicians. Mouths are being forced shut by our society's liberal mouthpieces. These paper tigers are overseeing the demise of free speech and we are going along with it fearful of being charged with a Cromwellian sounding "hate crime" or worst of all being accused of racism – which finishes any career at a stroke.

                We who disagree with the liberal hegemony are entering a nightmare comparable to 1984. If you think I exaggerate the reality; then think of Rochdale, Rotherham, and Oxford among other towns and other cities whose local authorities including the police, kept quiet out of a sense or fear of political correctness. When Asian Muslims abducted white female children from the streets to be passed around to be raped and sexually abused it was tolerated by the authorities. The politically correct authorities including the various councillors themselves as well as social workers and the police, all turned the other cheek.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS was created in our universities; first of all in their social science departments at various universities in America – and as the old saying goes, when America sneezes the world catches a cold; and this is what happens academically. Multiculturalism was the ideology of liberal social science departments; and political correctness was its disciplinarian arm, whereby any well or ill considered remark could fall foul of the dreaded hate crime, if the remark fitted the template of anti-political correctness as judged by its overseer within a kind of liberal Star Chamber of the sort belonging to those Oxford feminists.

                Sir Tim is a victim of a modern madness that has gripped the UK, Europe, and America. All the social media did was to bring his career at UCL to a speedy close. In the age we live in UCL would have ended Sir Tim's career anyway - it would have taken just a bit longer.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS on our campuses is so dominant that a single word or phrase can destroy the career of a talented Nobel Laureate.  Such behaviour should worry our democracy before it is too late - but it does not. Political correctness is, along with its parental guardian, multiculturalism, are becoming a totalitarian stain on our democracy; primarily because of the way our sceptical politicians and academics on our campuses keep their mouths zipped out of fear. We are living through a kind liberal McCarthy era where it is the Left who are pursuing academics like Sir Tim.               

                It is cowardliness in the extreme for UCL to pander to feminists within the academic community, whose trivial pursuit of Sir Tim over this issue, has led to his dismissal from UCL. He has been given the feminist black spot on social media, which may now keep him from any academic tutoring in the future; depending on how far the politically correct virus has spread into other parts of Europe. It is simply puerile, that such behaviour toward a science laureate, for merely an off the cuff remark, should bring to an end such a worthy academic teaching career that students would have profited by.

                He can however boast that he is up there with Galileo Galilee, as far as being persecuted is concerned; by a wholly irrational ideology (in Galileo's case, Catholicism), in his case ultra-orthodox feminists, who would spit in the face of any male looked at them below the neck-line.

                This cannot continue if we wish to continue to live within a healthy democracy; where free speech is sacrosanct, as is writing what you believe - in both cases with the exceptions of slander libel - which the law prohibits in any event.

                At some stage hopefully, there will be the fight back against our liberal hegemony; and let us pray it does not herald an authoritarian regime from the Right. We see its possibilities in northern and southern parts of Europe over immigration and the EU's insistence on the free movement of peoples. As we know from the history of both the Left and the Right, they both have unsavoury extremes – now let us hope the Left with their multiculturalism and political correctness, does not herald uber- nationalism of the type that haunted Europe 79 years ago. Today we live with liberal extremism in the form of political correctness – but for how much longer and at what cost?