Money talks, and furious alumni are making their voices heard. It is only
the beginning of the fightback

There is a phrase that has entered the lexicon: Go woke, go broke. How
pleasing to see it able to be applied to one of our increasingly woke
universities.

Cambridge University has long been a forerunner in the idiot social
justice activities of our time. The university had the country�s most woke
vice-chancellor � a man who has now happily resigned. But the university
has also been the sight of such madnesses as a full inquiry into a
memorial plaque (in Jesus College), which stood accused of a connection
with slavery. Also the removal of a bell (in St Catherine�s College)
because it was believed to have once been on a plantation, as though the
bell had some magically evil property. Cambridge, so long a refuge of
reason and rationalism has become a home of superstition and
scaremongering.

The latest college to fall into this insanity is Gonville and Caius, where
the author Helen Joyce faced extreme criticism from college administrators
after being invited to debate the trans issue last month. Joyce is well
placed to discuss the subject. She is the author of a superb, careful,
bestselling book on the issue. She is also a former journalist at the
Economist. Since I know most frothing Right-wing maniacs � and many are
among my best friends � I can safely say that Joyce is as far from a
frothing Right-wing maniac as it is possible to find. If people like Joyce
cannot talk at Cambridge, then it isn�t clear who can.

But ahead of the debate the College head, Prof Pippa Rogerson and the
senior tutor, Dr Andrew Spencer, vowed to boycott the talk. This is a very
unusual position to adopt. After all, professors don�t go to talks all the
time. If they all spent their days announcing what talks they were not
going to then very little else would get done at the university. But of
course Rogerson and Spencer were making a statement. They were signalling
that they would have no truck with an author who had a sensible attitude
towards the trans issue.

But now the ridiculous Rogerson has had to make a U-turn. This week she
has had to release a statement saying that free speech is �fundamental�.
It is rather like watching the slowest kid in the class catching up with
everybody else and then expecting applause. But there it is. Rogerson
seems to have to state the basics because only days earlier she showed
herself seemingly incapable of practising them.

What brought about this swift reversal? One thing: donors. In the wake of
the Joyce furore a number of alumni and college donors told the Telegraph
that they were �embarrassed, appalled and absolutely disgusted� by the
college leadership. A number said that they would never donate to the
college again.

It is a threat that has worked before. Over at Oxford there has been an
interminable row in recent years over whether or not to remove the statue
of Cecil Rhodes from the college (Oriel College) that he did so much to
endow. Although the college authorities have been alternately supine and
strong in response to the mob who believe justice is best achieved by
pulling down statues, the thing that caused the most impression on the
Oriel authorities was the threat of college donors to withhold funds.
Oriel looked set to lose tens of millions of pounds of endowments if they
went down the iconoclast route.

Of course, some people don�t like this � the activists, in particular �
and think that this is just money talking. But, personally, I believe it
might be about the most effective lever that we have to stop our
institutions going woke. After all, do they listen to sense? When another
university announces another inquiry as to whether or not it may have
benefited from the slave trade or colonialism, do they listen to those of
us who say this is madness? Do they acknowledge that the past is the past
and that we need a reasonable attitude towards it? No, they push on with
these ridiculous performances of moral superiority. None of which make any
difference to the lives of students alive and studying today in 2022.

The authorities who seemed to think that the magic bell of St Catherine�s
might bring back slavery if it were rung again did not appear to change
their minds when people like me lampooned them. Even though Cambridge
still has a number of reasonable and intelligent people there, what they
really listen to is money. And so it is right that we encourage money to
talk.

I am glad that we have learnt that there appears to be a price for
principles, and how easily they can be compromised. I would suggest that
donors to institutions across our country learn from this turnaround. From
the National Trust to the major museums, collections, schools and
institutions of Britain, it is right that people make their feelings felt
with their wallets.

One of the great truths of conservatism is that people are loyal to
institutions that are loyal to them. When the guardians of our culture
trash that culture, they trash that pact. This is only the beginning of
the much-needed fightback.

<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/07/donors-can-hit-woke-
universities-where-hurts/>