Protests as university nominates Milo Yiannopoulos for prestigious position

Far-right figurehead Milo Yiannopoulos has been nominated for a pretisgous university position.

The journalist and campaigner, who has caused outrage for his attitudes to minority groups, recived the nomination after a campaign by studnts.

He’s been nominated for the position of Rector at Glasgow University, Scotland.

The Lord Rector (more commonly known just as the Rector) of the University of Glasgow is one of the most senior posts within that institution, elected every three years by students.

Yiannopoulos is one of 12 names put forward by students for the position.

But there has been an uproar since the university accepted the nomination, with almost 2,000 signing a petition to block him from the shortlist.

It’s believed the former Breitbart editor has personally accepted the invitation to be nominated already.

The well known troll was left with his career in tatters last week after damaging tapes emerged in which he discussed men who have sex with underage boys.

In just 24 hours, the influential columnist was dropped from far-right news website Breitbart News, had his book deal axed by Simon and Schuster, and was removed from the line-up of the Republican CPAC conference.

Holly Hallam, the Glasgow University student who launched the petition, told The Independent that he should be removed from the shortlist as he preaches “hate speech” not “free speech”.

She said: “If you’re privileged enough to not experience misogyny, transphobia, Islamophobia, or any of the other kind of hate speech Milo perpetrates, the belief that someone is trying to stifle your ‘free speech’ can produce quite a negative gut reaction when you live without fear of any actual oppression.”

A page supporting his nomination has gained more than 3,000 likes so far.

A husting for the position is due to be held next week, and Yiannopoulos claimed he would be certain to win.

He wrote on Facebook: “Currently investigating whether a trip to Glasgow is feasible. One trip from me and I’d be sure to win the election”.

The position of Recotr has been held by Edward Snowden since 2014.

Staff now fear there could be “riots” if the oitspoke Trump advocate turns up at the hustings, and are fearful of the backlash.

Ameer Ibrahim, President of Glasgow University Students’ Representative Council, said the university did not support hate speech, saying: “We do not support hate-speech; this includes any that could be extended from a member or prospective member of the University community and would anticipate that candidates will reflect this through an open campaign that is inclusive to all of our students throughout and after this election period.”

The election is due to take place on 20 March.

If students want to stop him being elected, they could do worse thank asking a 16-year-old girl to help them – after it was revealed a teen was responsible for the story that took down the far-right troll.

Some of Yiannopoulos’ cult-like followers believe that there was a great moderate conspiracy to smear him – but the story was actually a teenage girl.

Vox spoke to the Canadian teenager, who is keeping her name private as other public foes of Yiannopoulos have been subjected to death threats and abuse from his followers.

The teen was responsible for digging up the old podcast clip of Yiannopoulos after hearing that he had been announced as a speaker at CPAC.

She tipped off conservative blog Reagan Battalion with a link to the video, and the blog picked it up – sparking the chain of events that led to the destruction of his career.

The teen explained: “I had no idea that it would blow up to the extent that it did.

“I see Milo as this embodiment of the awfulness you see over the past few years with the general tilt of millennial conservatism.”

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