Why did the government prevent Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking at my sons’ school?

Discovering my sons’ school had invited back former pupil Milo Yiannopoulos as a guest speaker was the highlight of an otherwise terrible parents’ evening. I chatted with the Head of School about the teenage Milo and whether there had been any clues as to his future transformation into a darling of the alt-right and anti-hero of American college campuses.

This was a great opportunity, we agreed, for current students to challenge such a notorious figure. I also mumbled something about the school being brave. But I don’t think either of us, at that point, realised quite what a torrent of criticism the school would be expected to withstand.

Today we learn that despite the willingness of Canterbury’s Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys to withstand the onslaught, the critics — those who prefer to censor rather than challenge views they disagree with — have won. What’s more, they’ve won in the most hypocritical and despicable manner — by calling upon the government’s Counter Extremism Unit to weigh in on their side, who contacted the school to check they had ‘considered any potential issues’.