Free speech is not about comfort but about courage

At their best, universities are not echo chambers or political tools: they are places where ideas are tested, debated, challenged and refined, argues former Labour minister Chris Smith (Getty)

- CHRIS SMITH

The most frightening moment of my political life didn’t come at the despatch box or in a grilling on Newsnight. It came in a packed public meeting in 1983 in London. I had just been elected, and a meeting had been organised by the GLC and others in Finsbury Town Hall in my constituency for Gerry Adams, then newly elected, as a Sinn Fein MP, but not taking his seat. They invited me as the fresh-faced local MP to speak, and I agreed - because I thought we needed to hear all points of view on Ireland at the time.

When it was my turn to speak, I said firmly but simply: “I cannot accept the use of violence for political ends in Northern Ireland.” The reaction was immediate and ferocious, angry booing that went on for minutes. I gripped the edge of the table to steady myself. I have never felt more afraid in public. But I said what I fervently believed. Even in that hostile room, I knew I was doing the right thing: standing up for a principle that mattered. That night stayed with me because it taught me a lesson I've never forgotten: that free speech isn't about comfort. It's about courage. It means saying what's right, not what's easy. That principle applies in politics, in journalism, and perhaps most vitally in universities.