21 November 2007
The British defense secretary and at least three other legislators have cancelled scheduled appearances at Oxford University's debating society because of a speaking invitation made to David Irving, a revisionist once jailed in Austria for denying the Holocaust. Defense Secretary Des Browne and the other officials decided not to speak at the Oxford Union when they learned Irving and Nick Griffin, head of the far-right British National Party (BNP), were invited to a forum on free speech planned for November 26.
Neither Browne nor the other members of Parliament were invited to attend that event, but were scheduled to speak on other days. An adviser to Browne said the defense chief believes the debating society has the right to invite Irving and Griffin. But Browne does not consider it appropriate to speak in the same place, the adviser said. Denis MacShane, a Labour party legislator, also withdrew from a speaking engagement, saying “Inviting two notorious Jew-haters ... to the most prestigious debating student forum in the world will validate today's anti-Semitism which is a poisonous ideology emanating from the extreme right as well as the Israel-hating left and Islamist ideologues”.
The debating society's president said that he invited the men to talk about the limits of free speech, not to expound their views, and that “stopping them from speaking only allows them to become free speech martyrs ... groups like BNP do well if they look like they're being censored.''
