Stuart Waiton
Quick Facts
Biography
Stuart Waiton is a senior sociology and criminology lecturer at Abertay University. He teaches on matters relating to anti-social behaviour, moral panics, hate crimes, and politics. Waiton was a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, initially getting involved in anti-racist politics and supporting Workers Against Racism (WAR). In 2019, as part of a defense of democracy he joined the Brexit Party, he was chosen by the Brexit Party as a candidate to be an MEP in Scotland (he was unsuccessful and lost his deposit after claims fewer than 5% of votes) and later as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Dundee West.
Waiton has been a columnist for the Times Education Supplement (Scotland) and has written for the Times, the Independent and currently is a columnist for the Glasgow Herald and a contributor to a number of mainstream radio and television discussion programmes. He has appeared on Sky News, and been a contributor on a number of radio debate programmes including the Richie Allen Show where he has discussed issues around academic freedom and freedom of speech five times between June 2018 and May 2019.
He has been involved in campaigns against the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act. He has criticised academics as stifling the debate around transgender topics, and has in turn been criticised for describing the transgender rights movement as asking for something that is biologically impossible. He has also questioned the state support for gender-neutral toilets and school uniforms and described the dynamic of equality campaigners as potentially authoritarian.