IN 2017, as the country reeled from a spate of allegations of sexual harassment at Westminster, Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “deeply concerned” and set up a confidential hotline within her own party to enable anyone targeted to come forward. She instigated a new code of conduct defining harassment as “any unwanted physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct that has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive situation or environment for them”.

How encouraging to have a leader willing to make clear that the toxic culture of misogyny that blights so many workplaces is not acceptable any more. If making women feel uncomfortable with sexual innuendo or using a position of power to pressure women into sex is considered part of old-fashioned British culture, it’s time to change the culture. Si bravo, prime minister, bravo!

But when it emerged that right-wing columnist Toby Young had been appointed to the board of a new universities regulator, avid social media users despaired to learn Young had begun deleting tens of thousands of tweets which he claimed were being “wrongly misconstrued” as evidence of sexism. He said he regretted some of his “silly” comments, but the free schools champion insisted he’s a good guy who cares about social mobility.

Unfortunately for Young, as he was busy trying to erase his Twitter past, others had already screen-shotted the worst of his comments and the images went viral.

Now, I’m all for second chances. There are numerous cases of perfectly decent people saying something outrageously stupid or ignorant on social media and paying a high cost as a consequence.

Young, however, is an experienced journalist who has written for numerous national publications. He understands the issues at play here perfectly well, and the fact that someone with such a high public profile didn’t stop to think before hitting the tweet button provides all the insight into his character – and suitability for a job that specifically states a requirement of “high standards of personal conduct” – that we need.

Only a couple of months after Theresa May’s battle to get a grip of the Westminster sexual harassment scandal, the Government has appointed a man who once tweeted this during Prime Minister’s Questions: “That’s quite a cleavage behind EdM #PMQs.”

Showing his diversity in public commentary, Young also had something to say about the Emmy awards back in 2009, tweeting: “The women here are smoking hot. There should be an award for Best Baps.” I’ll have to stop there, because the worst of his comments are too vulgar for print.

And all this is before we even get to remarks he's made about eugenics – he once wrote that poor parents with "below-average IQs" should be allowed to select more intelligent embryos if and when technology is advanced enough to do so – and described working-class students at Oxford as "stains" who would "scuttle across the quad as if carrying mobile homes on their backs".

And incredibly, the man the UK Government believes is fit to be on the board of a universities watchdog, wrote this in 2012: "Inclusive. It's one of those ghastly, politically correct words that have survived the demise of New Labour. Schools have got to be 'inclusive' these days."

He went on: "If [Michael] Gove is serious about wanting to bring back O-levels, the government will have to repeal the Equalities Act because any exam that isn't 'accessible' to a functionally illiterate troglodyte with a mental age of six will be judged to be 'elitist' and therefore forbidden by Harman's Law."

It’s astonishing, therefore, that despite speaking of professional women like pieces of meat and dismissing the need for inclusivity in education, Young has been publicly defended by none other than Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, one of the most senior figures in UK politics.

Posting on Twitter – clearly the haven of choice for senior, middle-aged male politicians and commentators with prehistoric views on women and equality – Johnson said: “Ridiculous outcry over Toby Young. He will bring independence, rigour and caustic wit. Ideal man for job.”

I keep thinking we’re going to wake up soon to find out that the current state of UK politics is the result of some huge social experiment or modern art project. I’m constantly scrunching my eyes and shaking my head to make sure I’m actually seeing this properly. This is ludicrous.

Congratulations to the Tories who said all the right things about tackling sexism in 2017, but actions speak louder than words. If there was any sincerity at all in it it’s time to step up and give Young the boot.