Snooping in the universities? A.C. Grayling says press stories about calls for surveillance of Islamists are simply overblown:
So what is new about Ruth Kelly's remark that universities must inform the police if they responsibly suspect the commission or planning of crimes? Well, as it happens, there is indeed something new about it - namely, the way that media sensationalisation has translated the previous sentence into "universities have been told to spy on student extremists".
If Mrs Kelly or anyone else was really demanding that universities should spy - literally spy: that is, bug, open letters, snoop, keep surveillance upon - members of its student body, that would be a scandal.