A 17-year-old student, Leo shepherd (below), has been kicked out of college for tweeting his support of the U.K. government’s new immigration policy seeking to deport those who arrive illegally into the country to the African nation of Rwanda for processing.
REMIX News Leo Shepherd, a former student at Burnley College in Lancashire, U.K., was reportedly refused permission to continue with his second year of studies because of his implied support of the Home Office’s latest strategy in dealing with the increasing level of illegal migration being experienced on England’s southern coast.
In the offending tweet, published on June 12, Shepherd commented on a story from the left-wing Mirror newspaper, in which a prospective asylum seeker was quoted as asking for “a chance for a life,” to which he replied: “That life can be had in the beautiful country of Rwanda, which has much nicer weather than the U.K.”
On June 15, Shepherd further tweeted his disapproval of the European Court of Human Rights’ decision to grant last-minute injunctions to a number of applicants claiming that their deportation from the U.K. would infringe upon their human rights, a judgment which effectively temporarily overturned decisions made by Britain’s domestic courts.
The former student tweeted:
Days later on June 20, Shepherd revealed that Burnley College had contacted him and refused to take him on for a second year because he “made some tweets they didn’t like about Rwanda.” “That is the state of Modern Britain,” he added.
The news resulted in an outpouring of support on social media from conservatives who offered advice to the 17-year-old, including from Toby Young, the director of the Free Speech Union, a U.K.-based organization that advocates freedom of speech and offers assistance to those under threat of modern-day cancel culture.
Speaking to the Disrupt YouTube channel, Shepherd explained “there had been a witch hunt led by a group of fellow students” who frequently sent his tweets to a WhatsApp group chat and forwarded them to college staff.
The college also found that Leo had shared a meme on Twitter which compared Jihadi bride Shamima Begum (below) and ISIS to the Ku Klux Klan.
On the broader topic of being a young conservative in the U.K. education system, Shepherd told the channel, “It’s always been pretty difficult, but I found until recently, most people, although they disagreed with me, they were open to my views. Now, I’m in quite a lot of heat.”
On the broader topic of being a young conservative in the U.K. education system, Shepherd told the channel, “It’s always been pretty difficult, but I found until recently, most people, although they disagreed with me, they were open to my views. Now, I’m in quite a lot of heat.”
Speaking of conservatives, the interviewer in the above video is Mahyar Tousi, the conservative working class son of an Iranian refugee, who says, “I’ve been shouted at, kicked and called an Uncle Tom for my conservative political views. But my Iranian roots mean I respect the Tories’ openness to ideas.”
The Guardian When a group of left wing anarchists in the middle of riots in the capital saw me entering the Tory conference in Manchester, they shrieked that I couldn’t be a real member of the party as I was “brown” and looked like “Uncle Tom”. I remember to this day the hatred that contorted their faces.
The press made much of the incident, saying it was an outrageous and unacceptable act of racism, but, if there is one thing I’ve learnt about being a modern Tory, it is that you need to develop a thick skin. To be open about your political affiliations – as I’ve always been through years of canvassing and fundraising – can also involve physical assaults as well as verbal ones, especially when you don’t, like me, actually look the part.
There are those who wonder why I keep putting myself through it. It was Winston Churchill who said, after all, that you can gauge the righteousness of your cause by the ugliness of the abuse it provokes. I only wish I could sit down and talk to these people who have shrieked at me and kicked me and talk through with them how I have come to hold the views that I do.
The country that had given my family refuge had given us everything that we possessed – including a sense of hope about the future – just as my old country, in the grip of fundamentalists, had taken it all from us.
People need to get that Tories don’t look like ruddy-faced old white men in exclusive clubs. They look like me. I recall my first experience of a political meeting at university in Manchester. A friend who was an activist in the Labour group there took me to one of their meetings.
I spent the whole night listening to the students talk about my own heritage and how the Tories are worse than the Iranian regime and that the Labour party will protect me. It was precisely because they were so patronising towards me – and knew so little about what they were talking about – that a few days later I proudly joined the Conservative society. There my ethnicity was never mentioned. They respected my right to wear a poppy as they respected my right not to.
newsupplements says
Millions of UK citizens agree with him . How is this college able to act against him in this manner. What has happened to UK law, surely he must be able to sue them for the largest figure he can get. I would love to see him win.
Az gal says
Poor kid, getting hassled when he is more intelligent than the lot of them.
Rob R says
Why are they so insecure that they can’t handle a 17-year-old’s opinion
What kind of psycho enjoys punishing someone so young just for saying something you didn’t like.
Here in Britain we are really beginning to reach the end.
BareNakedIslam says
Leftist Fascism is why.
Linda Rivera says
The Anti Freedom, Britain hater, Sharia-compliant Burnley, Lancashire College is vile and despicable. If you don’t agree with Muslim Colonization and Conquest of Britain, the College will do everything in its power to destroy you.
Rabid God haters physically attack courageous, outspoken heroes.
My respect and admiration for the brave young, white Englishman.
And my respect and admiration for the brave, young Iranian man. He’s a spiritual descendant of the great Persian (Iranian) kings written about in the Bible. Kings who honoured and obeyed the HOLY ONE, the One True God, Pure, Holy and Absolutely Good who dwells in unapproachable light.
BareNakedIslam says
Yes, he sure is, Linda.