A petition to prevent known radical and divisive figure Neville Astley from giving a talk at the University of Roehampton has been launched this week. The author is one of three writers behind the polarising work of televised fiction Peppa Pig was due to give a lecture to the university’s MA in Children’s Literature students, but has drawn disapproval from some of the student body for implicit attitudes conveyed in the show.

A spokesperson of the Assault On Peppa campaign group said “Peppa Pig has an appalling track record on animal rights, condoning the placing of pigs in pink dresses and blue jumpers. It also encourages abusive terms for spiders such as ‘mr skinny legs’. We won’t tolerate the promotion this kind of body dysmorphia in the arachnid community”.

The group went on to issue a statement that “Peppa also promulgates domestic violence and aggression on an unacceptable scale. When Daddy Pig loses his glasses, he repeatedly claims that he’s not grumpy, but can we really trust him when he makes that claim?”

The petition is part of a new wave of activism known as no-platforming, where students bravely encourage values of freedom of speech and open debate by not allowing people they disagree with to say anything. Originally conceived to prevent racists and fascists from skewing debate, the tactic has been expanded to prevent dangerous mouthpieces of terrorism such as Germaine Greer, Tim Stanley and Julie Bindel. It has also been recently deployed to prevent Robin Thicke’s song Blurred Lines, which features controversial lyrics such as “what rhymes with hug me?”, from being played on campuses around the UK. When asked what this means for every other song with potentially unpopular lyrics that has ever been written or recorded in the history of music, a member of University College London’s student union replied “nyah nyah, can’t hear you, you’ve got no platform in my brain, nyah nyah nyah”, before  erecting a gigantic white soundproof booth on top of the main campus building for like-minded students to sit in, drinking rainwater from a tube and reading dishwasher manuals for the remainder of their natural lives.

Daddy Pig was unavailable for comment.