What does the Tim Hunt saga tell us about the future of democracy?

A friend of mine, who attends a top UK University, recently attended a generic debate on feminism and sexual violence. He made a point from the floor that, contrary to his colleague who argued that unless consent is enthusiastic it constitutes rape, legally speaking consent needn’t be enthusiastic in order to be legitimate. What followed is simply astounding.

The next day he was called in to a meeting with a student union official, who informed him that a group of female students had made a joint complaint about him, raising concerns about their safety on campus. They had been going around warning other students that he is, apparently, a potential threat. The official handed my friend some literature on the definition of consent and asked him to tone down his behaviour. My friend, furious as one would expect, sent me an article he intended to have published in an online student paper.