Peter Young IN the context of ‘wokeness’, which I wrote about in a recent column, there were two interesting developments in Britain last week. One was a speech by a Cabinet minister about the Conservative values of equality and individual responsibility while the other was a report by a leading think tank about the importance of free speech in universities. These are significant issues in modern society that can affect many people – even indirectly – so they are, perhaps, worth examining further. As a reminder, the word ‘woke’, which originated in the US, is defined as a political term referring to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social and racial justice and participation in the movement against inequality and prejudice. Apparently, being woke was at first associated with black Americans fighting racism. But it has been appropriated by other activist groups and it has now become a wider phenomenon both in the US and in Britain.