When you title your book Win Every Argument, you create the very definition of a hostage to fortune. So it’s especially unfortunate that Mehdi Hasan, the author of said book, is an inveterate poster on social media – and most of his posts seem to demonstrate that he has, indeed, a knack for the very opposite.

On Tuesday, Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, raised the issue of Barnet Hill Academy, a newly state-funded Islamic faith school in north London, which requires female pupils to wear hijabs from Year three onwards. Trott said: ‘No one should be telling girls to cover their hair, least of all a school. We, the Conservatives, are campaigning to make sure that this (policy), which we believe breaches various rules and possibly the law, is overturned. Under a Conservative government, this would never happen, and we’re trying to stop it under this awful government too.’

It should be a relatively uncontroversial statement that no female child in Britain should be forced to cover their hair in school

It should be a relatively uncontroversial statement that no female child in Britain should be forced to cover their hair in school

Not all the school’s pupils are Muslim. But only after its enforcement of mandatory hijabs sparked a backlash did the........

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