How students damage the causes they champion

Stepford students have scarcely been out of the media since they earned their soubriquet in this magazine three years ago. If you are offended (and tick the right demographic boxes), university is the place for you. But the social justice warriors are the last people anyone should want fighting their corner. Their legacy – even more than their threat to free speech in itself – will be the spectacular hindrance they have been to the causes they have taken up.

The majority of students now avoid controversies for fear of saying the wrong thing, or being ‘too privileged’ to weigh in. Dissent from the Stepfords can only really be gauged in the privacy of the ballot box: five universities have voted ‘the wrong way’ on disaffiliating from the NUS, while Cambridge students defied the student union to put a stop to the abolition of class lists. Otherwise, sticking your head above the parapet isn’t worth it, which can leave important student issues neglected.