Cambridge student Phoebe Pickering, 19, said young Tories were constantly the butt of jokes and branded ‘immoral’ – causing many to censor themselves in their daily lives
A Conservative student at Cambridge has spoken out about the ‘dirty looks’ and abuse she has had from her peers because of her political beliefs.
Phoebe Pickering, 19, said young Tories were constantly the butt of jokes and branded ‘immoral’ – causing many to censor themselves in their daily lives.
She said she had learned to ‘keep her mouth shut’ when asked about her political opinions by friends because she did not want to have to deal with the backlash.
Writing in the student newspaper Varsity, she warned that Tory students were being demonised for their views and branded ‘bad people’.
Miss Pickering wrote: ‘Maybe that would explain how, despite being very interested in politics, whenever this topic of conversation comes up, I pray that nobody will ask my opinion, look to the floor and keep my mouth shut.
‘Maybe that would provide a better explanation as to why I feel it necessary if I have confessed my views to follow it up immediately with quick-fire justifications as to why I’m not a bad person.
‘It really shouldn’t be this way that people take such a dim view of humanity as to label most voters in the UK as bad people.
‘A phrase that comes to mind is: “Look at a man like he’s the Devil and you’ll never understand his motives.”
‘It is so much easier to label someone as evil than to rebut their arguments.’ Miss Pickering achieved three A*s at A-level at Brighton College despite battling with cancer during her studies and having to take a year off school.
Her article comes amid growing fears that free speech is being stifled at universities by left-wingers who will not allow any opinions to be aired but their own. This risks creating ‘echo chambers’ in which anyone with right-leaning views is made to feel unwelcome.
Miss Pickering, a first-year undergraduate from Brighton, said the problem was not confined to her university.
She wrote: ‘I have learnt over the years that it is just not worth it to allow my political leanings to slip into conversation any more.
The Conservative student at Cambridge has spoken out about the ‘dirty looks’ and abuse she has had from her peers because of her political beliefs
‘I’ve been asked questions such as “I know you’re a nice person and all but how could you feel okay with yourself voting Conservative?” and “How do you sleep at night knowing that you voted for austerity?” I’ve had people shouting at me and throwing me dirty looks for supporting the Leave campaign.’
The philosophy student at Corpus Christi College said she had heard that Conservative student campaigners were being given the cold shoulder by peers. One student canvasser faced ‘real abuse and social ostracism’ in the runup to the general election this year for putting leaflets in pigeonholes.
‘That would never happen to a Labour campaigner in Cambridge,’ Miss Pickering said. ‘To create this sort of censorial environment is to create a real danger of a stagnating and even declining society.’