I was a student at Essex University in 1968 when Alasdair MacIntyre opposed its occupation by students attempting to reinstate three of their number sent down for protesting against a lecturer from Porton Down, the government’s research base for chemical and biological warfare.
At a mass meeting of occupying students, I said: “Professor MacIntyre, let me read you a recent review of a book on student politics in the US. It says that when students find constitutional avenues of change blocked, they will resort to direct action, and are quite right to do so. The reviewer? Why, none other than our dean of students, Alasdair MacIntyre!”
He was not best pleased and never again bought me a malt whisky in the student bar.
