26 October 2017
Chris Heaton-Harris, Conservative MP for Daventry, caused controversy this week when he wrote to universities asking for the names of professors involved in teaching European affairs “with particular reference to Brexit”. In an article for Politico, Professor Tim Bale writes: “If it’s substantiation for that charge that Chris Heaton-Harris was hoping to get…then I say: Good, at least we’ll have some evidence. Because at the moment, the best Brexiteers can come up with is a list of clearly earnest, though hardly subtle, and arguably self-interested interventions by scholars who have either gone over to the dark side (university management — run for the hills!) or else are indulging in perfectly legit extracurricular political activity. None of these, I’m sad to inform the world, are likely even to be noticed by the average (or even above- or below-average) student, let alone persuade them to set fire to the Union Flag while draping themselves instead in the glorious blue and gold stars of Brussels.”
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