Given Cambridge’s colourful connections and global prominence, we regularly play host to a variety of academic, political, and celebrity speakers. However, these talks are seldom without controversy, and protests and counter-protests frequently fill the air with noisy chants; I can vividly remember hearing the incredibly loud drums protesting against Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely’s talk at the Cambridge Union from my room in nearby Jesus College.

“Launching a combination of flour and eggs at the then Chancellor of the Exchequer”

There can be significant obstacles when hosting such polemical personalities, and these challenges were highlighted last week when Cambridge University’s Conservative Association (CUCA) was forced to cancel an event with former Home Secretary Suella Braveman on the basis of unprecedented security and logistical concerns arising from a planned protest. In this edition of Vintage Varsity, I have uncovered a handful of occasions when these concerns turned into reality and protests became physical.

In 1982, Varsity reported that CUCA welcomed Sir Geoffrey Howe in the Cambridge Union and, during his defence of the Government’s long-term economic strategy, a Catz student protester provided “an embarrassing reminder of political figure’s vulnerability when [coming] to Cambridge” by launching a combination of flour and eggs at the then Chancellor of the Exchequer.

“Luckily for the former PM, ‘an avid cricketer’ in the audience leapt up to intercept the flying boot”

Although only suffering “a light covering” of flour to his green tweed jacket (most of the flour landed on then CUCA President Simon Barnes), Varsity noted that Sir Geoffrey joked about regretting his comment from earlier in the evening that it was “nice to come away from the House of Commons to somewhere civilised like this meeting [of CUCA members]”.

This event was one of several food-related security breaches: Labour’s Foreign Secretary Dr David Owen suffered the same floury-fate in 1978, and the Chairman of British Steel Sir Charles Villiers was “pelted with tomatoes” in 1980.

Straying away from cooking ingredients, in 2009 student protesters took their inspiration from the famous – or perhaps infamous – incident in Baghdad where an Iraqi journalist threw his shoe at President George W. Bush. One student lobbed his shoe when the University hosted Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at West Concert Hall in February, and another followed suit in November at the Cambridge Union when Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard visited. Luckily for the former PM, “an avid cricketer” in the audience leapt up to intercept the flying boot. Unlike the startled Sir Geoffrey, Howard took light of the situation by laughing at the “pathetic throw” and stating that the boot-thrower “would never be on my [cricket] team”.