England Society (Keele University)

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The England Society was an official student society of Keele University Students' Union which ran from September 2003 till May 2004.

Contents

[edit] Aims and Objectives

The aims and objectives of the society were to:

Overall, and according to the society's now defunct website, the ultimate aim of the society was to reinvigorate a sense of inclusive and non-racial nationalism towards England amongst students at the university.

However, largely due to the No Platform Controversy (discussed below), the group also became embroiled in an often controversial anti-censorship and pro-freedom of speech campaign.

[edit] Origins and Activities

The England Society was created and presided over throughout its existence by the then Keele University student, Richard Chambers. According to a 2005 publication, Chambers wished to create a non-exclusive but audacious project that a lot of people could be involved in [1]. In the same publication he claims to have been inspired by the view from his old house across The Potteries to do something towards the recognition of England and the English [1].

The society was never officially affiliated to any group other than KUSU. However, during its existence it worked with The English Democrats Party, The Campaign for an English Parliament, The Democracy Movement, We Are The English, and Steadfast Magazine.

The England Society attended KUSU fairs, regularly contributed to the student union's publication - Concourse, and operated a popular website. However, despite the group's high profile and big ambition, actual society events were sparse. By far the most popular event was a talk and debate featuring the Campaign Director of The Democracy Movement, Marc Glendenning. The only other society event of any note as a poorly attended talk by the Chairman of the The Campaign for an English Parliament, Mike Knowles. Chambers attributed in part both the poor attendance of the latter event and to a certain extent the popularity of the former to the No Platform Controversy.

[edit] The No Platform Controversy

At approximately midday on September the 28th, 2003, The England Society were made to leave their stand at KUSU's Fresher's Fair and the society was temporarily shut down pending investigation [1]. The action was taken after the KUSU executive body took the decision to activate their No Platform Policy against the society following a complaint about one of the events advertised in their literature.

The event in question was still being organised by the society at the time (although they had chosen to advertise it) and was to be a debate on multiculturalism and education in the UK. An anonymous complaint had been made to the Union executive over the society's decision to invite Right Now! editor, Derek Turner to take part in the debate. Their No Platform Policy allows KUSU to shut down affiliated societies that they feel are giving voice to 'racists' or 'fascists' and, as Derek Turner is considered a 'fascist' by certain publications, the KUSU executive took the decision to immediately remove the society from the Freshers Fair and to shut it down pending an investigation.

This event quickly became one of the talking points of Freshers Week as demonstrated by subsequent editions of the union's student publication. A week later, a meeting took place between society president, Chambers and the KUSU executive. The society was allowed to continue to operate on the condition that the planned multiculturalism debate was abandoned. However, a further event featuring Marc Glendenning of The Democracy Movement was censored following a further anonymous complaint and the society was warned to avoid controversial material.

The England Society argued that this was completely unacceptable and that, as the nature of most of their arguments could be seen as controversial by political adversaries, their continued existence under such circumstances would be politically inept. This resulted in the society digressing into a campaign against the union's No Platform Policy.

This behaviour was seen as unwise and undesirable by several prominent groups and individuals at the university [2]. Chambers defended his actions, however, by saying that he never actually wanted to become embroiled in the No Platform debate and welcomed attempts to protect students from discrimination but the fact that the policy was preventing his own non-extremist society from doing its job meant that it was damaging to liberal debate and there were clearly problems with it.

[edit] Outcomes

KUSU and the England Society never reached a resolution over the No Platform Controversy and in May 2004, the England Society disbanded. Chambers continued to run a lower profile website based incarnation of the society in the years that followed but, due to persistent technical problems, this project was also abandoned in 2006.

Despite the society's short and controversial existence, it was credited for reinvigorating interest in union politics at Keele. The No Platform Controversy is still a regular talking point at Keele in Union General Meetings and meetings of the Student Council and remains unresolved to this day.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Chambers, Richard (2005). "The England Society - Keele University", in Tony Linsell (ed): Views From The English Community. Athelney, 153-156. ISBN 1-903313-03-1. 
  2. ^ In Defence of No Platform. Concourse - Keele University Student Union (2004).

[edit] External links

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