Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury is the school my sons attend. It was also, some years ago, the school of self-styled alt-right controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos. Despite having been expelled for what he admits was ‘outrageous behaviour’, Milo had been invited back to his alma mater to speak to senior pupils about ‘politics, culture, political correctness and the result of the US election’. Today we learnt that Milo’s talk will no longer go ahead.
Since Milo’s announcement as guest speaker, the school has been subjected to criticism and condemnation primarily from people with no connection to Simon Langton. Some suggested that the government’s anti-extremist Prevent Strategy should be invoked to stop impressionable minds from hearing Yiannopoulos's ‘hate speech’.
The National Union of Teachers weighed in with concerns for the students wellbeing. A few ex-pupils and academics argued that racism and misogyny have no place in a school and posed a risk to vulnerable young people. One or two, so concerned that Langton students would fall prey to bad ideas, threatened to organise demonstrations. Today’s decision to cancel the proposed event follows contact with the school from the Department for Education’s Counter Extremism Unit.
Staff and students were overwhelmingly in favour of holding the talk. The tickets to the event went within a day. But sadly, too few outside the school shared the view that teachers be able to judge what is good for their students and that young adults to be allowed to decide for themselves what they hear.
Yiannopoulos’s views may be outrageous but they are out there in the public realm. In fact, there is a constant battle of words between Milo and his adversaries. The latter say ‘you can’t say that’ and the alt-right say it, in Milo’s case in the most extreme and outrageous way he can. And so it goes on, a circle of offence taking an offence giving.
Like it or not (and I don’t), this is a part of politics today. Yiannopoulos courts controversy with crazy, racist and misogynist statements, seeing them as a way of challenging the censorious mood around free speech. His opt out is that he does not mean all of it and only says it to undermine a restrictive culture. It is a childish modus operandi in many ways, and some of what he says is simply awful.
But this does not alter the fact that there is a censorious culture around speech today, as can be seen in the government’s Prevent Strategy and the no platforming of speakers in universities.
Sixth formers, especially at a school like Simon Langton that encourages debate and engagement with all aspects of the world, are quite capable of dealing with Milo’s mad rantings and the alt right’s contrarian politics. The school prides itself on producing independent thinkers. They are well capable of judging Yiannopoulos’s views and taking them apart.
What have Milo’s opponents achieved? They have succeeded in telling young inquiring minds that they need protecting from bad ideas. They have succeeded in branding capable young adults, the next generation of leaders and thinkers, as vulnerable. They have made themselves feel good, virtuous and purposeful, but in so doing have undermined political debate in schools. They have denied the sixth formers the freedom to listen, judge and reject what they disagree with.
In the personalised world of the alt right versus the identitarian Left, Milo’s critics have served only to elevate his status. As former pupil Daniel Hamilton puts it: ‘The cancellation of his talk only serves to feed his misguided narrative about an effete liberal elite who refuse to have their world view challenged or debated. The way to beat bigotry and extremism isn’t to sweep it under the carpet.’
Simon Langton’s Head Teacher, Dr Matthew Baxter has stated that ‘…we at the Langton remain committed to the principle of free speech and open debate and will resist, where possible, all forms of censorship.’ It’s now up to parents, teachers and all of us to support this important principle.
