{"id":423982,"date":"2025-09-14T15:21:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T15:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/423982\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T15:21:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T15:21:19","slug":"miles-briggs-made-politically-motivated-attack-on-scottish-slavery-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/423982\/","title":{"rendered":"Miles Briggs made ‘politically motivated attack on Scottish slavery research’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Tommy J Curry, a philosopher at the University of Edinburgh<\/a>, co-led a major peer-reviewed study into the institution\u2019s own history of racism.\n<\/p>\n

\n Briggs claimed the work, which cost \u00a3359,000 to complete, was a \u201cstaggering misuse of resources\u201d and \u201cself indulgent\u201d. He had previously accused the project of \u201cpandering to revisionist right-on views\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n The review catalogued how academics at the University of Edinburgh<\/a>, some of whom were leading figures of the Scottish enlightenment, developed a racist ideology to justify slavery and the British Empire.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Nigel Farage failed to register US trip for Donald Trump fundraiser with Commons<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Crucially, it found that Dugald Stewart, one of Edinburgh\u2019s most celebrated mathematicians and moral philosophers, taught thousands of students that white Europeans were racially superior.\n<\/p>\n

\n Peter Mathieson, the university\u2019s vice-principal, issued a \u201cdeep apology\u201d in response to the findings.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Sunday Times reports<\/a> that Curry, originally from Louisiana, was not surprised by Briggs\u2019s remarks.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m from the United States, where conservative politicians have often tried to censor or defund research on race, colonialism and enslavement,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe tactic is familiar: reduce serious scholarship to a soundbite, dismiss the expertise of black academics, and argue that economic scarcity should silence research that makes them uncomfortable. It\u2019s not a new line of attack \u2014 just a recycled one.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere is a very clear strain of anti-intellectualism,\u201d Curry (below) added. \u201cUniversities should be places where all questions can be asked and pursued.\n<\/p>\n

\n Curry is a philosopher at Edinburgh University(Image: Unknown)\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cInstead, what we see in the UK is an effort to censor \u2018radical\u2019 ideas from racial and ethnic minorities, while privileging perspectives that align with a conservative political platform.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe UK has very few black academics compared to the US or Canada, and no major research centres on slavery, colonialism, or racial conflict. Yet critics insist they know these subjects better than scholars who have spent their careers studying them. That is the very definition of anti-intellectualism.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The review was initially chaired by Sir Geoff Palmer, Scotland\u2019s first black professor, who sadly died before the work was published.\n<\/p>\n

\n Asked to respond to Curry\u2019s comments, Briggs stressed his friendship with Palmer to the newspaper.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn the almost decade I have served in the Scottish Parliament I have never seen a situation where a university employee has been given such free rein to attack an elected representative in such a crass and unprofessional manner,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI have throughout my career supported the work of Edinburgh University and given the dire financial position it currently finds itself, along with the potential for hundreds of my constituents who work at the university to lose their jobs, feel the university should be looking wisely at how they are spending every penny and pound.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Business Secretary says Peter Mandelson has ‘outstanding, singular talents’<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI have engaged over several years on the issue of race and slavery especially with my late friend, Professor Sir Geoff Palmer, and believe it is vital that we understand our history and not try to erase it.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe must learn the lessons from history, especially in our universities.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Critics, including Times columnist Magnus Linklater, have argued that Edinburgh University had no need to apologise. A group of staff members, anonymously, objected to proposals for the institution to make amends by funding more students of colour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tommy J Curry, a philosopher at the University of Edinburgh, co-led a major peer-reviewed study into the institution\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-423982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115203334628422693","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}