Is the Oxford Union in the wrong?

Students attacked and jeered others who turned up to a freedom of speech debate at the University of Oxford last night that was to be addressed by David Irving, the controversial writer, and Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party.

Undergraduates with tickets to the event endured chants of “Nazi scum” and “shame on you” from hundreds of protesters from Oxford colleges and the Unite Against Fascism campaign group in a narrow street in central Oxford. Some protesters brandished placards and hit students who were trying to get into the debating chamber.

As ticketholders fought their way through, protesters broke into the chamber and one tried to attack a member of the debating society’s staff. About 30 people sat in the debating hall singing protest songs.

Police fought to bring the situation under control while nervous students waited in the bar for the debate to begin. The trouble forced Mr Irving and Mr Griffin to hold separate debates, starting at about 10pm. Only 250 of the audience – half the expected turn-out – managed to attend.

Mr Irving talked about his conviction in Austria for Holocaust denial and denied being antiSemitic, while, in another chamber, Mr Griffin spoke about immigration, libel laws and the public perception of the BNP. He said they were regarded as “working-class plebs”. On the protesters outside, he said: “This is a mob which would kill. I have seen them beat old men and women and try to kill them. Had they grown up in Nazi Germany they would have made splendid Nazis.”

Earlier, a crowd had massed outside the society’s grounds, shouting antifascist slogans, banging drums and waving flags and banners. Luke Tryl, the president of the Oxford Union Debating Society, came under immense pressure to cancel the debate but insisted that Mr Irving, who was jailed for his offence in Austria, and Mr Griffin, who has been convicted of race offences, be allowed to speak.

After the debates he said: “I think David Irving came out of that looking pathetic. I said in my introduction that I found his view repugnant and abhorrent.” On the protesters, some of whom had been heard chanting “Kill Tryl”, he said: “I don’t think they do their cause any favours by inciting violence. That is my only regret.”

Daniel Bloch, co-president of the University of Oxford’s Jewish Society, said that his members had worked with the Islamic Society to stage a strong and united protest. He said: “My main grievance about this debate is the accusation that we want to deny people free speech. We just don’t want to give them any more platforms to air their views, which are disgraceful.”

The decision to invite Mr Irving and Mr Griffin, made after a vote among members of the debating society, had already outraged Trevor Phillips, the head 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 that the students should be ashamed. Dr Lewis, MP for New Forest East, said he was resigning his life membership “with great sadness”.

The presence of the pair on the list of speakers prompted a series of withdrawals from the platform, including Des Browne, the Defence Secretary. Evan Harris, a Lib Dem MP who was billed to speak, said that banning Mr Griffin and Mr Irving would risk turning “bigots into martyrs”. Later he criticised the police’s failure to throw a cordon around the site and prevent protesters storming the building.

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