Oxford divides 'free speech' debate after protesters break in

Published on Tuesday 27 November 2007 00:16

PROTESTERS last night failed to halt a debate featuring the controversial historian David Irving and Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party despite breaking through a security cordon and bursting into the Oxford Union.

The two main guest speakers were forced to debate in separate rooms for safety reasons. University authorities considered it was too dangerous to walk Mr Griffin and Mr Irving across the quadrangle between the main Union building and the debating hall.

Instead Mr Irving, who was jailed for three years in Austria for denying the Holocaust, spoke alongside broadcaster and author Anne Atkins and Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris in the debating hall while Mr Griffin was among debaters speaking in the main Union building.

Earlier demonstrators staged a sit-down protest at the debating table, while others danced on chairs and played jingles on the piano after shoving their way into the hall.

The Oxford Union had been under significant pressure to cancel the debate, which protesters said would give a platform to racists. However, supporters of the debate insisted a "confident democracy" should be able to stage such events.

Both Mr Irving and Mr Griffin arrived two hours early for the event, scheduled for 8:30pm, and were bundled inside. Protesters greeted them with shouts of "Keep Oxford fascist-free; we will defend democracy".

The rally organisers, including Unite Against Fascism and Oxford-based community groups, had hoped that at least 1,000 people would turn up, but estimates put the crowd numbers at closer to 500.

Those arriving for the debate had to get past heavy security and faced jeers of "shame on you". Some with tickets for the event scaled the fence to get in and had eggs thrown at them.

The decision to invite Mr Griffin and Mr Irving, made after a vote among members of the debating society, outraged Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and prompted a senior Conservative MP to resign his life membership of the union.

Julian Lewis, the shadow defence minister, said the students should be "ashamed" of themselves. In a letter to the union's officers and standing committee, Dr Lewis, MP for New Forest East, said he was rescinding his life membership "with great sadness". He wrote: "Nothing which happens in the debate can possibly offset the boost you are giving to a couple of scoundrels who can put up with anything except being ignored."

The presence of the pair on the list of speakers prompted a series of high- profile withdrawals from the platform, including Des Browne, the Defence Secretary. Martin McCluskey, president of the Oxford Student Union, said it was "disgraceful" that the pair were being given the same platform as past speakers such as Mother Theresa and the Dalai Lama.

But Evan Harris, a Liberal Democrat MP, also billed to speak at the event, said banning Mr Griffin and Mr Irving would risk turning "bigots into martyrs".

Protester Peter Simpson, a 22-year-old Essex University student, said he and his fellow students had travelled more than three hours to be at the protest.

"We wanted to make our point, not outside but in here. I hope that we're not giving Griffin further publicity by doing this but history has shown that you need to draw the line with fascists."

Mr Griffin has repeatedly insisted the BNP is not a racist group. He was convicted in 1998 for incitement to racial hatred for material denying the Holocaust.

• THE Oxford Union Debating Society, founded in 1823, has a worldwide reputation and is famous for its cut and thrust.

It is a separate body from the Oxford University Student's Union and the university.

Well known speakers have included the Dalai Lama, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa and former US presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Actors and celebrities have also been given a platform - their numbers include Clint Eastwood, Stephen Fry, the TV talk show host Jerry Springer and the magician David Blaine. It prides itself on freedom of speech, most famously by debating and passing the motion "This House would under no circumstances fight for its King and country" in 1933.