Mob Tactics
The ugly appearance of the shouting-down technique at meetings has symbolised, in an ex- tremist way, the noisy confusion of the cam- paigns. Tempers ought to rise somewhat during an election and language' ought be pretty rough, but the refusal to let a man speak is something else. I see that one of Sir Alec's, tormentors at Leeds wrote to the Guardian to justify his con- duct, and, after making the depressing claim that the jeering came from friends of his who were 'professional people, teachers, lecturers, social scientists and postgraduates,' added this: 'A wise and able man deserves a hearing, but not Sir Alec with his misguided and inaccurate state- ments.' The writer of this letter at least achieved
a candid statement of the view that if you dis- approve of what a man says you are entitled to deny him a hearing. He addressed his letter, I see, from the University Union at Leeds. I hope the implication that it is a view widely shared at that university is unjustified.
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