COULD controversial, Trump supporting, right-wing, internet troll Milo be coming to Glasgow as part of his campaign to be the university’s next rector?
The city is rife with rumours Milo Yiannopoulos, the former Breitbart editor recently forced to deny being pro-paedophile, could meet with students ahead of the March 20 vote.
His appearance on campus would likely lead to furious protests.
One senior member of the university’s management team told The National they were terrified at the prospect of a visit from the alt-right celebrity.
A recent speech at the University of California, Berkeley had to be cancelled after thousands of students, and anti-fascist activists turned up to object. Though initially boisterous but peaceful, as the time of Yiannopoulos’s appearance neared, several dozen protesters attacked the police barricades, and set off fireworks.
“We really hope he doesn’t turn up,” the Glasgow academic who asked not to be named told this paper. “There’ll be riots. The last thing we want is for the university to go up in flames just because some students have got drunk and nominated this racist, sexist, homophobic bully for what is actually an important position.”
Yiannopoulos is one of 12 candidates standing to be Rector. Others include human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, former Liberal Democrat MP Vince Cable, Lady Hazel Cosgrove, the first woman to be appointed to a permanent seat as a judge in the Court of Session, and PissPigGranddad, an American internet celebrity fighting with the People’s Defence Unit in Syria.
Though a largely ceremonial role, the person who becomes Rector is supposed to chair the university’s court, and be the voice of the students among the institution’s high heidyins.
The most recent rector was whistleblower Edward Snowden who, for obvious reasons, never set foot in Glasgow during his term.
Previous rectors include Winnie Mandela and musician and National columnist Pat Kane.
The Glasgow University Femsoc has called for a boycott of the election unless Yiannopoulos, is removed from the ballot: “We are absolutely disgusted to see Milo Yiannopoulos on the rector nomination list,” they wrote on their facebook page, describing him as “racist, misogynistic and xenophobic”.
His campaign did not respond to requests for a comment, but a Facebook page supporting his candidacy, which has around 3,000 likes, criticised the “overblown reaction” to Yiannopoulos’s candidacy.
“The intolerant, authoritarian silence-everyone-who-disagrees-with-me attitude of these people is dangerous to our University, to our society, and frankly to our lives,” they wrote.
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