I disagree with what you say, but ...

The phrase usually attributed to Voltaire, "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" represents a principle which is one of the touchstones of a functioning democracy.

I have no time for David Irving, and never have had. Twenty-five years ago, when I was an undergraduate, some idiot supplied him with a list of the names and addresses of Conservative students on which my details appeared. Irving sent out two mailings: I returned unopened the first one with a covering note indicating my disdain for what he represented, which sufficiently annoyed him that to the best of my knowledge I was the only person on the list to whom he didn't send a subsequent mailing a few weeks later.

Nor have I any time for the BNP, or their leader.

And nor do I consider that these gentlemen hae anything constructive to add to British political debate, let alone anything to say which would justify inviting them to speak to the Oxford Union.

Those who attempted to organised a non-violent protest indicating their disagreement with the invitation were fully entitled to do so.

But although I disgree with Irving, Griffin, and the decision to invite them, those who went beyond peaceful protest by actively disrupting the debate at the Oxford Union this evening were acting as enemies, not friends, of Democracy. If there is one thing which the far right love even more than publicity, it is being able to pose as martyrs and defenders of free speech. They are not, and we should not play into their hands by letting them pretend to be.

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