07/03/2017 Look North (East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire)

Intolerant and illiberal, the criticism of a students Union

What the students union has done now is clamp down completely

So they're very willing to stick up for students, it

seems, as long as those students agree completely

A cancer patient's dying wish - better bedside phones to cut

And wasn't it a lovely day. Forecast later.

The Students' Union at the University of Lincoln

is being accused of censorship after suspending the social

media account of a group of young Conservatives.

The Union denies the accusation, but the Lincoln MP Karl McCartney

has got involved, calling the student union

We'll hear from him in a moment, but first here's our

There's a long tradition of student protest in this country,

but some claim that free speech is becoming increasingly

The University of Lincoln's Conservative Society claims that

when it highlighted a recent survey by an online magazine describing

the Student Union as "very intolerant" it had its official

social media account suspended - a response described by Lincoln's MP

Karl McCartney as "intolerant, illiberal and totalitarian".

The University of Lincoln's Student Union said it was investigating

a "breach of code of conduct" but insisted that "freedom of Speech

where students can express opinions and ideas freely within the law."

We spoke to a student union officer who was stood down after reprimanded

for one of his tweets. What we have been saying is that dissenting, not

even his venting, criticising, just trying to have a debate. --

dissenting. So how do students feel? I feel we are more understanding of

peoples differences. I don't think many people are offended easily. You

can discuss controversial subjects because people do get offended all

the time. So the age-old debate about free

speech is being played out in a very modern setting with our universities

facing a delicate balancing act between the right to be heard

and the right not to be offended. Karl McCartney is

the MP for Lincoln. Earlier I asked him what he thought

of the Student Union's censorship. I think they are mistaken

and it is certainly And it's not really

what you expect of a University that should be open

and transparent and willing to And not be a bit

snowflake about things. taking over, a bit like North Korea,

calling them snowflakes. I think they have gone

in for censorship in a major way. The irony of this is the fact

that the Conservative society at the student union was one

of the student union societies making

point that they felt the student union was clamping down on freedom

I know what the students union has done is

completely clamp-down on freedom speech so they are very willing to

stick up for students, it seems, as long as the students agree

How would you feel if you were at the University

and you were mainstream or a Conservative?

I was at university once upon a time in the deep and distant

past now and was lucky enough to be elected as my students'

union president of the university I was at.

I certainly wouldn't have tried to clamp down on the Labour

society or the Labour club at the time.

Because it is part of the discourse of being at university.

And it is now this afternoon escalating and is getting national

Is this embarrassing for the University?

I think it is and the diversity perhaps trying to be a

things and wash their hands and see the student

union have got their own rules and regulations but I think the

university has got to take a very dim view of the students union

unilaterally trying to close down freedom of speech on campus with

what is ultimately a political society.

In a sentence, what would be your message to the students' union

The students' union, I think, need to have a major rethink.

I know they have already Elizabeth tweets

I know they have already deleted the tweets

that they find offensive or they disagreed with that however they

found them they have gone into the account and deleted them

themselves and as I said I think it is pretty

It's a bit of a stain on Lincoln's outlook, if you like to

We are actually a proud, historical city, and we're home and

So it's pretty unedifying as far as I'm concerned as a local member

There has been a lot of response on this story this evening.

The private company that runs Lincolnshire County Council's

finances has been given a ?1 million penalty,

It's the second year in a row that payments to Serco have

It's the second year in a row that payments to Serco have

been held back, because of hundreds of mistakes in the payment

of teachers, firefighters and council staff.

Special machinery is being brought in to help reconnect hundreds

of homes in Lincolnshire which are still without

Supplies were lost in 16 villages in the Wolds on Sunday

after a leak was found under a river.

Anglian Water say it's unclear when water will be fully restored

to around 200 properties as the work is proving difficult to complete.

A man from Hull whose wife died of cancer aged 52 is raising money

Beverley Garnett said she felt isolated while she was at

Castle Hill hospital, because there were no patient phones

Now her husband Terry is campaigning to get wi fi put in so patients

are able to call friends and family when they need them.

At the age of 16 Beverley Garnett met

her future husband - married for nearly 30 years -

and a mother to two children - her life was cut short by pancreatic

Despite receiving what her family describe as fantastic care

at Castle Hill's award winning cancer centre - Beverley's family

says a lack of wifi, a beside phone or even mobile phone

signal left her feeling isolated in her final months.

There were a number of times during

the course of the night where she

She must have been in a very dark place knowing

There would have been many times that she would have wanted

to pick up the phone just to speak to me, just to talk.

Not just about cancer, just to talk about everyday things to take

to help Beverley's family with their campaign

to have WiFi installed within the Queen's Medical Centre.

The NHS trust which runs this hospital says it

technology plays a huge part connecting families and patients.

But it adds offering radiotherapy from within a complex

building can cause problems with mobile connectivity.

And it's a familiar story for other families -

Dianne Rogers says her step-father, who died from cancer,

found the inability to call his wife from hospital distressing.

It is bad enough being in hospital and a bit for some people who are

terminally ill it is that last week are our or month on this act and the

need to speak to people. -- F. -- earth.

Hospital bosses have agreed to meet with

You can have the chemotherapy, radiotherapy but also part

of the process of the healing is to be able to get in touch

I had a discussion with Beverley and it was one

of her dying wishes that I started a crusade.

I'm very focused in making sure that we explore every avenue.

A teenager from Hull has been nominated for an Olivier award -

British theatre's equivalent to the Oscars.

19-year-old Ben Hunter has been short listed for his role

in Gary Barlow's musical, The Girls.

North Lincolnshire's Sheridan Smith has also been nominated for an award

as best actress in a musical for Funny Girl.

at Charlton - but the Iron stay third in League One and Lincoln City

beat Braintree 4-0 to stay top of the National

It's the Imps last game before they face Arsenal in the FA Cup

Let's get a look at the weather forecast -

It wasn't such a bad day across East Yorkshire and

Overnight, though, here comes that change.

A weather front pushes in from the West introducing

I think we could see some pretty heavy rain at times.

Tomorrow morning, a bit of a north South

Some of that cloud hanging on to southern parts were some

Temperatures getting to 11 or 12 Celsius

will feel pretty decent as well although maybe just a bit breezy at

So we have this mild air which is coming up from the

south-west and that actually sticks workers over the next few days.

It doesn't mean is going to be wall-to-wall sunshine.

rain on Saturday. The national picture now from Nick Miller.

It looks like next week high pressure will become a player again

in our weather, settling things down for some