Bath University launched its Diversity & Equality month yesterday with guest speakers and I on a panel debate.

Following a presentation by Tim Lezzard of the National Union of Journalists on free speech, groups discussed the rights and responsibilities that it confers. Their findings were presented to a panel of lecturers, a Student Union rep and a politician – me. Fortunately we were all fairly liberal in our approach to human rights and individual freedoms, so there were no major arguements.

Diversity & Equality Month (www.bath.ac.uk/diversitymonth) celebrates the wide variety of communities who study and work at Bath university. A number of events have been organised including lectures, comedy, films and music challenging attitudes to disability, sexuality, race, religion and more.

In some part, the series was organised as a reaction to the threat of the BNP, who attempted to give a speech on campus last academic year. The protests against brought many people together, who have worked to promote that which extremists decry. The Student’s Union is due to hold a referendum on implementing a ‘No Platform’ policy to prevent extremisit groups from using Union resources.