Freedom Of Speech
Oxford was a bit more lively tonight than normal, with an Oxford Union debate on free speech, to which Nick Griffin (BNP leader) and David Irving (historian, denies Holocaust occurred) were invited. Not suprisingly, not everyone was happy about them being invited, and so we had two fundamental human rights on display, the right to free speech and the right to protest.
A debate about the right to free speech isn't so much about whether we have the right (we do), but where the limits on those rights are set. And the only way to find out is by having them challenged by people whose views we find obnoxious to the point where we start thinking there should be some restrictions on what they're saying, but then we need to turn it around and think what if we were in the minority instead- would we be banned from speaking?
Some protestors managed to break into the Oxford Union and interrupt the debate. Which if you ask me is a bit of an own goal. One of the main reasons for the protest was that by giving them a platform to speak the Oxford Union were lending them an air of legitimacy. I happen to disagree- most people (particularly in Oxford University) should be more than intelligent enough to know when someone is talking rubbish, and by giving them a public platform sooner or later they'll dig themselves into a hole, but by disrupting the debate it does give them a hint of credibility- along the lines of "you're too scared to debate with me, you'd rather just stop me from speaking".
There was a fairly big police presence, and the media enjoyed it. The BBC and ITN had outside broadcast news crews outside, and there were several other camera crews and radio stations around outside. But after a few hours of standing outside in the cold I decided to go home.
