 The Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has spent most of the past year twiddling his thumbs. When schools closed in January, it became apparent he'd done virtually nothing since the start of the pandemic to aid home learning. Kids still didn't have laptops after months. It was his job. He didn't do it. He was also silent when Rishi Sunak spiked a plan by The Educations are to invest billions in catch-up programs. This is an Education Secretary who doesn't really like to do his job. However, this week Williamson finally found a voice, finally found an issue which was worth him pricking up his ears and paying attention. And that was to express his outrage. The group of students decided to replace a picture of the Queen in their common room. Now the story was revealed by the right-wing blog Guido Forks, a committee of students from Mordorlin's Middle Common Room, agreed by a substantial majority to take the portrait of Queen Elizabeth down from their wall and to explore replacing the portrait with art by or of other influential and inspirational people. One student claimed that patriotism and colonialism are not really separable. Another claimed the move was not about cancelling the Queen, saying the committee was not capable of doing so. This is about our communal space and making people feel welcome. I think Guido were trying to pull out the most outrageous quotes that they all actually sound very, very reasonable to me. Of course, patriotism and colonialism are not really separable. That doesn't mean we necessarily have to throw patriotism out the window, but we can't pretend there is no relationship between those two things. And this wasn't cancelling the Queen. More importantly than this, a middle common room is a student union for people of a particular college who were master students, essentially. Like it's going to be a few dozen people, like a hundred or so people. They've decided that they want to change the picture on their wall. I can imagine it's above a pool table or something, really, really not a significant decision. But Guido think it's a story. And Gavin Williamson thinks it's a story because in response to this article from Guido Forks, Gavin Williamson tweeted, Oxford University students removing a picture of the Queen is simply absurd. She is the head of state and a symbol of what is best about the UK during her long reign. She has worked tirelessly to promote British values of tolerance, inclusivity and respect around the world. She was the head of the British Empire. I'm not really sure if the values of tolerance, inclusivity and respect for everyone around the world were the values she represented. We also know that within the time span of her reign, the House of Windsor had a policy of not employing anyone from an ethnic minority. She's not necessarily the image of inclusivity that many people in the British establishment want to paint her as, but more importantly than that, this doesn't matter. This is not something that an education secretary should be commenting on. This is students deciding to replace one picture with another picture. It's like, if I take down a picture of Prince and replace it with a picture of Dua Lipa in my bedroom, I am not cancelling Prince. I am changing the picture. Here they are not cancelling the Queen, but they are changing a picture. Gavin Williamson would much rather talk about what's on the wall in a common room in Oxford than the fact that he plunged thousands of young people's future into chaos during the A-levels grade saga when he decided to allow an algorithm that discriminated against people based on where they live and what their class is to decide student grades, or the fact that he's repeatedly tried to force teachers and students back into unsafe working environments without the proper precautions and only doing last-minute U-turns when the trade unions get involved, or the abysmal decision to revoke free school meals and summer holidays in the middle of a pandemic, or the fact that even things like the laptop scheme, which is so vital to so many kids in the middle of a pandemic where so many people are having to rely on remote learning, the fact that that hasn't been rolled out nearly to the scale that was either promised or that is needed, or he doesn't want to talk about the fact that 92% of 6,000 teachers that were polled said that he should resign, so he doesn't have any confidence in the workers that are in the sector that he's responsible for. He would much rather talk about this than be challenged on any of those issues, so it's not surprising to me that you know he's coming out guns blazing because this is essentially a cheap shot to galvanize a base at the expense of a group of like maybe a few dozen students who don't have the means to defend themselves against the weight of an abusive tabloid media, which is you know the full weight of which we are currently seeing, and their own secretary of education essentially inciting a hate campaign against them. You know this isn't a story like a tiny group of students have democratically decided what they want to do with their communal space, that is something they are perfectly entitled to do. Like is that not the basis of like free speech and debate and democracy? These students had a debate, they had a discussion, they made a democratic decision, and what is essentially happening here is that the secretary of education is trying to punish students for taking down a picture of the head of state from their common room. Like is that the mark of a democratic and a free society? Who's the snowflake here? Like is that the mark of British values that are apparently so uniquely British and yet seem to be violated by the British state on a regular basis? And this tells me that you know this whole free speech moral panic where you know the biggest threats to free speech are like you know students and like black people and trans people. You know it's a complete Trojan horse for forcing people to accept and promote reactionary and bigoted views because the actual consensus for such views is shrinking. So they need to resort to whatever they can, especially these cheap tactics to ensure that these positions and views still have to be represented in the mainstream, even though actually amongst the younger generation, the future generations, it doesn't hold that much cache. And I think when it comes to how we should respond to this, it's really easy to kind of brush this off as like a silly distraction and to an extent it is you know it's not like the most deep or serious thing, but it also you know it clearly isn't just that. It's like what we are seeing here is a petty but very vicious backlash to the fact that there is undoubtedly you know particularly as I said amongst young people a growing radical anti-racist, anti-colonial consciousness that isn't just accepting you know mere representation. It's not saying that oh if you just represent us or diversify a bit then we'll shut up. But it's actually rooting their understanding of anti-racism and anti-colonialism in systemic change of our economic and political systems. They are identifying the role that the British state which includes the monarchy you know I think there's a lot of thinking you know misinformed thinking that the monarchy just has symbolic power. No they are like the British royal families like one of the biggest landowners in the world. Like land is not a symbolic form of power. It's actually a very material form of power that is enforced with a lot of violence. But it's essentially a backlash against that changing anti-racist consciousness because I am sure that the establishment media and the government were very shaken at those scenes last summer. Not only that young black and brown people were taking to the streets and demanding different kinds of change but also that young white kids and you know even older white people in rural areas parts where we don't normally see you know big turnout for anti-racist demonstrations we even saw it there and so instead of actually reckoning with that they are basically just kind of picking fights with groups of people who can't defend themselves and caricaturing the people who are pushing for change and they're enforcing top-down legislation to stop the conversation and that's what we see in the measures to ban the use of anti-capitalist materials as teaching materials and that's why as silly as it might seem we have to defend these students because first of all this is a deliberate attempt here to basically spell a hate campaign that they don't deserve. I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of that. It's incredibly destroying, it's incredibly destructive. I know many people who are still picking up the pieces of the mental health impacts of being the subject of a hate campaign led by the government and led by tabloid media but it's also this is also how the right is trying to galvanize power in the face of shifting terrain using these cheap tabloid style tactics it's an attempt to delegitimize using the full power of the state and the media those who are pushing to change things and we mustn't dismiss these students we have to defend them because it's important that that delegitimization strategy for all of our sakes is not successful and that at a time when so many powerful forces are trying to demonize them we need to show that there is a large mass of us that are willing to back them up. That was incredibly well put now if you want to hear more analysis like that from Dahlia on the stories we cover every Wednesday do make sure you subscribe to the channel of course we put out videos every week with all of our fantastic contributors. Now I'm going to look at a few more responses to this story so it's a good statement actually from the president of Maudelin College. Here are some facts about Maudelin College and Her Majesty the Queen. The middle common room is an organization of graduate students they don't represent the college. A few years ago in about 2013 they brought a print of a photo with the Queen to decorate their common room. They recently voted to take it down both of these decisions are their own to take not the colleges. Maudelin strongly supports free speech and political debate and the MCR's right to autonomy maybe they'll vote to put it up again maybe they won't meanwhile the photo will be safely stored. Being a student is about more than studying it's about exploring and debating ideas it's sometimes about provoking older generations looks like that isn't so hard to do these days. So if you are one of the people currently sending obscene and threatening messages to the college staff you might consider pausing and ask yourself whether that is really the best way to show your respect for the Queen or whether she'd be more likely to support traditions of free debate and democratic decision making that we are keeping alive at Maudelin. I'm not necessarily sure if she could say oh the Queen is massively committed to democratic decision making she's of course a hereditary monarch and was the head of the British Empire but in any case the overall point the defense of the students is is pretty good there I thought that was was a reasonable statement that gave some important context to this story and one thing she definitely is right about is how easy it now is to provoke the older generation now the decision by a few students to change a picture didn't just provoke a response from Williamson it also got a whole front page in the Daily Mail so they thought this was the most important story outrageous Oxford students vote to axe Queen it's important to note they didn't vote to axe the Queen you know that would be you know they voted to abolish the Queen or something much more significant and will change the picture above the pool table or next to the coffee machine to a different picture that people in our student body associate more with and it's completely sensationalist clickbait headline I want to go now to someone who probably should have known better um Andy Burnham was asked about this being interviewed by Nick Ferrari let's take a look noting that your great city has some tremendous universities and you yourself went to the other place a word on Oxford University students deciding to take down a portrait of the Queen because it makes them feel uncomfortable well I just I mean I can't really relate to that if I'm honest you know I think this kind of these kind of gestures are getting a bit out of hand if I'm honest Nick I mean I don't support that you know we are all I think always should respect the Queen but particularly now given things that have happened in the last few months so no I don't support that you know no let's let's get a sense of proportion and a bit of a bit of respect back people can hear their views but those kind of gestures I think are divisive actually they just divide people and and I don't think they achieve much to be honest well said Andy come on like for a start that's a lie he says I can't really relate to this now you were you know you were in university as a socialist right I'm sure the idea that you didn't want the Queen above your coffee machine or your pool table you might not agree you can definitely relate to that come on this this is not a complex point you know it's not alien you must know some republicans in your life even if you're not one I mean probably he is one come on let's face it right but he won't admit it because he wants to be the Labour Party and ultimately the Prime Minister so so he's got to keep up this pretense that he's really supportive of the Queen the most ridiculous part of that answer though was Andy Burnham saying let's get a sense of proportion now he is a senior Labour politician mayor of Manchester and he is telling Nick Ferrari that he condemns people changing a picture in their common room for a different picture and he's saying it's other people who don't have a sense of proportion give me a break you know Andy Burnham has had a good run right he's had a good run over the past few weeks he's made some decent arguments made some good stands against the government but going on national radio and telling students they need to get a sense of proportion for changing one poster to another poster it's completely completely bizarre now you might say oh the question posed by Nick Ferrari maybe Andy Burnham didn't quite get how insignificant this was I presumed he did I mean this was huge on last night's news so that that was this morning this story broke last night and also there's no harm in an interview in saying so Nick you're saying they voted to take down a picture where was the picture you know you can say look I would have left the picture up but I'm not going to condemn a bunch of students for changing a poster it's it's frankly very very embarrassing Andy Burnham's trying to put himself forward as sort of like I'm the reasonable leader guy who could actually challenge the establishment and I'm not just going to grovel on my knees to try and make royalists think that I'll do everything they possibly ask do you think that was damaging to him I mean it's cowardice it's cowardice it's pandering it's the easy way out and I think that he needs to really think about what his pathway to power is and think about the role that people who have experienced the brunt force the brute force sorry of you know the state particularly during empire the role that those people are going to play in his pathway to power maybe should reflect a little bit on what he owes them this would have been such an easy conversation all he needed to do was say look I'm not here to talk about what a few dozen students do with their decor in their university common room I'm here to talk about XYZ things but instead what he's doing and I have to bring this back to my own personal experience of being a student and having the full weight like I cannot explain to you what it must feel like for those students to see that front page of the Daily Mail saying that they have voted to axe the queen like that is incredibly inflammatory disgusting language and I dread to think what those students email boxes I dread to think what is in those things right now and Anzi Burnham has added to that pile on with Nick Ferrari so you know what's whose side are you on it's disgusting it's just it's pandering it's cowardice it's unimaginative and it just tells me that he doesn't really have the tools to deal with the terrain that a lot of these issues are being fought on and I go back to the thing that I said about how you know in many ways it seems silly and in many ways and it is silly in many ways but underpinning it is a very serious difference in ideology and a very serious intergenerational shift that is happening and I don't think Andy Burnham wants to be on the wrong side of it and I think even if he wanted to stay neutral or even if he wanted to kind of you know distance himself from it there was a very easy way to do that you know Andy Burnham knows how to deflect I'm sure he's had his media training and he actively chose to join in what must be an incredibly terrifying moment for a few students who should feel able to participate in the democratic processes of their university without feeling that they might be exposed by the Daily Mail by Guido Forks by their own government you rightly point out the issues with the head of the college's statement I think the fact that the head of the college came out and defended those students shows us you know that we've come a little bit further ahead because when we were doing that work in 2015 in around the Rosemont Hall campaign the Chancellor of the University called up a radio station and said that if we don't like it here we should go to China because we don't value free speech or you know we should go somewhere else if we don't like it here so you know the fact that yeah I'm not I did not know that who is by the way was the last colonial governor of Hong Kong who was the Chancellor of Oxford University called up a radio station was like if the students don't like it here they should go somewhere else so the fact that that you know as as as problematic as that state as many problems that statement might have I'm glad that she actually said that because I'm sure that will be much more relief to those students