By Lizzie Dearden
Controversy has arisen following comments made by the University of York’s Chancellor in defence of the London School of Economics’ links to the oppressive Libyan regime. Greg Dyke, former Director-General of the BBC, spoke in Central Hall on Thursday on behalf of the “York says Yes!” campaign in favour of the proposed changes to the electoral system, to be voted on later this year.
The event, entitled “The Trouble in Our Democracy & The Campaign for Fairer Votes” included a question and answer session after his speech. Dyke answered students’ questions regarding education cuts and the decline of print journalism, but members of the audience were surprised by some of his comments, which appeared to belittle last year’s tuition fee protests as well as defend the LSE Vice-Chancellor’s links to Libya. Eppie Leishman, a current student, told Vision that she “was surprised that [Dyke] defended the director of LSE on the basis that in three weeks’ time [Libya] will be old news. It was really offensive.”
Sir Howard Davies resigned from his position as director of LSE in response to widespread criticism of the institution’s relationship with Libyan authority. His close relationship with the dictator’s son, Saif Gaddafi, has been revealed, as well as a £2.2m contract to train Libyan civil servants and professionals. Dyke is a friend of Davies and referred to a conversation where he called his decision to resign “silly”. He responded to student reactions by saying, “I don’t remember describing Howard’s resignation as “silly” but I did say I thought it was a mistake. I said that the LSE/Libya story would soon be old news, not Libya itself quite obviously, and that is why Howard shouldn’t have resigned.”
A referendum regarding electoral reform is to be held on May 5.