Many of you will have heard how Germaine Greer was viciously censored by a howling mob of trans women, and banned from speaking at Cardiff University this month. (I quote, for example, “Germaine Greer is banned from speaking to students”, from an article in Saturday’s Times). Here’s what actually happened.

Firstly, Cardiff University did not cancel the lecture. Greer withdrew, so that she could then go running to the media claiming that she had been prevented from speaking. She got a lot of TV time, and articles in newspapers about her almost every day since. She also rescheduled the talk for yesterday. I suspect that having it during Trans Awareness Week had always been the plan. When she was complaining that she was being prevented from speaking she claimed that the talk would be nothing to do with trans women, and yet from this Guardian report it seems as if it was very much about us.

Nevertheless, I expect to continue to see newspaper articles claiming that her talk was cancelled and that she has been prevented from expressing her opinions. When you have that level of access to the media, you can get them to say what you want. And still claim that you are being censored while doing so.

On the plus side, her opinions are so foul and irrational that all of this publicity might be doing us a lot of good.