Should people who attend Nazi conferences get government funding?

[noblegiraffe]

Ok, provocative title, but it's hard to distil this situation into a few words. Yes it's about Toby Young.

News has come out about a secret conference held for the last few years at UCL. Invite-only, secret and small, it has apparently been attended by a neo-nazi and a paedophilia supporter. The conference is apparently about the inheritability of intelligence but has also looked at race and intelligence and eugenics.
The Telegraph details the conference here: www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/01/10/ucl-launches-eugenics-probe-emerges-academic-held-controversial/

It appears that Toby Young was one of the invitees to this secret invite-only conference. Aside from writing misogynistic tweets, he has also written an article supporting 'progressive eugenics'. The Guardian talks about Toby Young's involvement here:

www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/10/ucl-to-investigate-secret-eugenics-conference-held-on-campus

Given that the attendees were aware of the unacceptable nature of their discussions so held them in secret and that the fact that the conferences are now banned and are being investigated, it's clear that something pretty unsavoury has been going on.

Toby Young has resigned from his position on the board of the Office for Students, and it appears his resignation may be linked to these revelations. Toby Young also pulls in a fat salary as Director of the New Schools Network. The New Schools Network is a charity, but it receives the majority of its funding from the DfE. Surely his position there is also untenable?

[showersinger]

Perfectly put the cat

[noblegiraffe]

Excellent points, cat about the power imbalance.

What's it that they say on the feminism boards? When those in a position of power experience equality, it feels like oppression?

And then we have people like Sarah Vine telling us that a million voices on twitter expressing their disapproval of something and that being acted upon is overturning democracy instead of enforcing it.

[noblegiraffe]

Thinking about the narrative coming out from the conference and people involved with it:
Women are less intelligent than men
Black people are less intelligent than white people
The left is less intelligent than the right.

They're just seeking to maintain the same power structure that cat talked about in her post.

These people aren't academics. Their papers should be treated with the same suspicion as creationists who churn out 'academic' papers proving that the universe is 6000 years old (there are lots of these!).

We do not have to treat these people with respect and listen to their opinions, however unpalatable. We know where those views lead. They don't deserve airtime and are rightly on the fringe.

[Peregrina]

And let's not excuse Theresa May in all this. She was quite happy to preach about citizens of nowhere, and to establish a hostile regime whilst at the Home Office. It's all of a piece - some people are regarded as more desirable than others, and it's a short step to deciding to stop the less desirables from breeding and more. If she wasn't aware of Toby Young's abhorrent views she ought to have made it her business to find out.

[ChattyLion]

So many great points made on this thread.

[noblegiraffe]

And the news is just out that the girlfriend of the current UKIP leader is a hideous racist.
That guy from Google who wrote that document about 'diversity' programmes excluding men and how women are better at stuff that makes them not as good programmers as men got sacked and immediately went on a media tour of the alt-right and not the mainstream media.

Toby Young writes about 'progressive eugenics' and then it turns out he has attended a secret, invite-only conference also attended by neo-Nazis.

It seems whenever there's a person or organisation who attempts to present a mild, reasonable argument for something that smells a bit sexist or racist, when you scratch the surface - oh look, there are the racists and misogynists hiding behind the 'reasonable' argument.

[Piggywaspushed]

I do wonder who the girlfriend was texting since whoever it was does seem to have a) called her out on it at the time and b) told the press.

She is not only a racist but also very thick. I guess racists do tend to be.

[Battleax]

Yes, and about 6:1 ratio of her to texts to theirs. I do smell a set up. But I don't really care if a racist waltzes stupidly into a set up, in all honesty.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Something I’ve seen today says she’s claiming they were taken out of context.

It’s difficult to imagine any context which would make those texts OK. ‘m not sure if she’s completely stupid and thinks that’s a reasonable excuse or whether we’ve reached the point where those with power think the general public are so stupid they’ll swallow anything.

[Battleax]

Even if some of the other person's texts were deleted, she still said what she said. If the complete version made her look much better, she'd release it.

[LineysRunt]

Jo Marney may well be easy to dismiss as the thick end of the whole racist train of thought around 'tainted' 'seed', but Toby Young's not that very different, really, in my book.

In fact in trying to use his academic credentials and his political mates to legitimise the fuzzy edges of such thinking, he's much more dangerous.

[mumpoints]

Piggywaspushed I just assumed it was a honey trap! No one can be that stupid on such a political issue when shacked up with a political leader, can they?!

It is a set up, surely?

[LineysRunt]

One news report said she only met Henry Bolton just before Xmas. But he's already left his wife to be in a relationship with her.

The 'sting' must be recent as it would be pointless otherwise. It's her connection with UKIP leadership that's newsworthy, not her herself.

It all seems very odd.

I hope Toby Young doesn't use this to his advantage. 'Oooh, that's what a thick racist looks like, not me guv.'

[mumpoints]

LineysRunt The guy was an obvious and easy target. More than one wife has accused him of cheating. His Achilles heel was fairly obvious!

[LineysRunt]

But Jo Marney wasn't part of the sting, was she? Just an unwitting accomplice.

[mumpoints]

LineysRunt Oh I assumed she was. A honey trap (with a puppeteer somewhere obvs).

She came from nowhere and her texts read like a joke!

[mumpoints]

I don't think Marney set the sting up herself. I think she was paid to make a fool of him. She did it very well!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I managed to miss this entirely. Thank you for highlighting it.

[mumpoints]

Do we know who the "male friend" is to whom she sent the texts? Is there any more history or were her texts a new style for her? Do we know for sure the texts were sent before she met Bolton?

My bottom line, as they say, is that someone that young is pretty media savvy in this day and age thanks to being brought up with social networks and she surely have known what she was saying was socially unacceptable (plus, the texts read as if they were made up for an episode of The Simpsons!) and, well, it's a way of getting famous that doesn't involve a sex tape.

And there's no fool like an old fool.

[LineysRunt]

She says she's a model / music journalist. I think being famous for being a racist would be a bit of a career disaster for her, at 25.

[noblegiraffe]

Just a reminder that Toby Young is still director of the New Schools Network

One thing that's been niggling me is him describing himself as a 'journalist'. He has a column, sure, but so do loads of people. At £90k for his role as Director, surely that's his day job?

Stewart Lee (regular column, doesn't describe himself as a journalist) has a summary of events here: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/14/how-toby-young-got-where-he-isnt-today-universities-regulator-resignation

[mumpoints]

LineysRunt I see your point but some people will do anything for their 15 minutes, they really will. 25 is getting on a bit in z-lister terms and she could always go on Big Brother and reform herself, see the error of her ways...

Anyway, I await the next installment with interest.

[LineysRunt]

Hello, Kitten.

Thanks for that link, Noble. Will have a read shortly. I hope TY doesn't slink away under the radar.

mumpoints, as you say, a space to watch, especially as Henry Bolton is being investigated by what's left of the leadership and resources of UKIP.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I think the BBC were reporting that the texts were sent 3 weeks before she got with Henry Bolton. So either she’s in on the whole thing and it’s a complete set up or she needs to be a bit more careful about which friends she texts her racist ramblings to. Some of them obviously have a price.

[noblegiraffe]

Apparently there's a student protest today outside the President of UCL's office asking for answers about the conference.

twitter.com/ikran/status/952888060563415045