If Cambridge's debating girls can't stand the heat, they should stay out of Glasgow kitchens

Glasgow University Union is in the headlines again. The story at first sight appears typical of the petty campus rows to which undergraduates attach passionate importance but which bore the rest of the world. On closer consideration, it encompasses issues of free speech and political control that are of genuine concern.

At the recently held final round of the Glasgow University Union (GUU) Ancients debating competition, involving the older-established British universities, two female speakers complained of being heckled and booed during their speeches and of being subjected to sexist abuse. One girl was from Cambridge, the other from Edinburgh University. As a reprisal, Cambridge has announced it will not send debaters to compete in GUU in future. On the day after the event Rebecca Meredith, the debater from Cambridge, posted her account on Facebook: ‘Last night the amazing Marlena Valles and I were openly booed by a small number of misogynistic male Glasgow Union debaters and members during the final of the Glasgow Ancients competition for our presence as female speakers.’

Considering the number of women speakers who have received uproarious applause in GUU over the years, it seems unlikely the heckling was directed against their presence as female speakers. Later in the same post, the complainant referred to ‘boos at mention of female equality’, which seems more plausible. GUU members claim the booing was directed at the girls for going off-topic to indulge in feminist rhetoric (the motion was ‘That this House regrets the centralisation of religion’) and that male speakers were similarly booed if they became irrelevant. According to a pompous statement on Facebook by the debate’s chief adjudicator, the remarks complained about were overheard by women sitting behind the hecklers.