The BNP and Redwatch working together

The picture above shows a group of protestors at the demonstration against the Nick Griffin/David Irving debate at the Oxford Union earlier this week and is taken from the BNP website, where it printed (naturally) a scathing report criticising those who dared to demonstrate against it.

Curiously (or perhaps not) it also appeared on the day after the demonstration on the Redwatch site. Redwatch, run by the moronic nazi Kevin Watmough, is famed for encouraging violence against anti-fascists, trades unionists and anyone it perceives as being to the left of Genghis Khan, and shows images and, where they are available, names, addresses, phone numbers and any other contact details it can muster up.

Many of those who have found themselves on Redwatch have been targets of hardcore nazis - many of them suffering firebombs in their houses and cars, general abuse either face to face or by phone, and violent attacks.

Naturally, the BNP has always stated that it has nothing at all to do with Redwatch, despite the fact that its members have been repeatedly observed taking pictures which have subsequently appeared on the site. On this occasion though, they may have tripped themselves up in their desperate attempt to convince the party members that the demo wasn't an own goal that linked the party leader irrevocably with the Holocaust-denier David Irving. In its haste to put up its photo's of the demonstrators, it used the image above which, up until then, had only appeared on the Redwatch site - suggesting that either the BNP photographer is supplying both the party and Redwatch or that the BNP trawls Redwatch for images it can use.

Either way, it shows a connection between Redwatch and the BNP that the latter has been lyingly denying for years. More evidence, as if any were needed, that the BNP is still concealing a hardcore nazi element under the sharp suits and bad ties, and that the implicit violence of Redwatch is never really far below the surface of this racist party.

[Thanks to Duncan for the heads-up]

Comment: No Platform works!

One of the most successful weapons devised to combat the growth of Fascism in the United Kingdom is the long standing No Platform policy. It is a policy that thirty years ago seriously hobbled the then ascendant National Front, and which continues to invoke cries of pain and outrage from the British National Party.

No Platform is based on the principle that some views are so extreme, so abhorrent, so divisive, so much based on hate and bigotry, that no platform should be provided for the espousal of them.

No Platform worked.

It ensured that odious organisations such as the BNP could never claim legitimacy or parity for their bigoted beliefs and were never provided with an audience in which to disseminate them. Their failure to obtain television air time or to have their policies reported uncritically in the wider media has caused them an inestimable degree of harm and is a major (perhaps the major) factor in ensuring that organisationally their progress and growth has been at best snail’s pace, and that electorally they are largely moribund.

The No Platform stance of the media unions means that we do not wake up to find a Griffin or a Darby on the breakfast TV sofas, smarming and spinning at full bore for having been invited to comment upon the latest breaking immigration story and matters arising. It keeps them off the Question Time panel and out of the news studios.

No Platform also ensured that the bacillus of fascism and its related -isms were never allowed to infect our places of learning, namely the universities - prime targets for organisations suffering from a cruel intellectual deficit, and thus necessarily overburdened at all levels by charmless low-calibre human material which thinks in simple slogans and believes the bigoted tirade to have a moral and political equivalence with the policies of the mainstream parties.

We anti-fascists daily come upon the illiterate scratchings with which BNP members disfigure various parts of the Internet. To see them in action is to take away any surprise at all that modern-day snake-oil salesmen like Griffin, Barnes, Darby, et al, have risen to the top of the BNP. It could never really be otherwise.

And that’s how we would like to keep it - the decidedly dodgy leading the irredeemably inept, dancing them around and around the houses in continuous procession that always returns to its starting point - thus sustaining a moral-boosting illusion of movement and progress when there is none at all.

Readers of these pages are well aware of the surfeit of problems besetting the British National Party - internal dissent, purges and expulsions, stolen “trade unions”, missing accounts, electoral stagnation … which taken together all adds up to a highly satisfying six months for anti-fascists, particularly as we feared (and the racists expected) that at this point in time we would be dealing with an organisationally larger, slicker and electorally better represented BNP.

Given this, we are entitled at ask: who in their right minds would choose this very time to provide the British National Party with invaluable national publicity, to allow them to spuriously present themselves simultaneously as champions of free speech and “victims” of “left-wing” censorship, and to provide them with a platform on which to do it?

As we are all aware, this week the Oxford Union Debating Society drove a coach and horses through No Platform by inviting the BNP’s Nick Griffin and jailbird “revisionist” author David Irving to address them on the subject of “free speech”.

The president of OUDS is Luke Tryl, a prominent member of Conservative Future, the Tory Party’s youth organisation. He justified the invitations on the grounds that “these people are not being given a platform to extol their views, but are coming to talk about the limits of free speech”.

From the beginning Tryl must have been alive to the fact that not only would the appearance of Griffin and Irving provoke widespread condemnation and protest, but that he was handing the BNP a priceless propaganda coup which it was certain to exploit and abuse - as it has - to its own benefit.

In fact Tryl had ample warnings, not least from OUDS members, that the only winners in this self-inflicted debacle were going to be the BNP and David Irving.

Yet he persisted, doggedly, to the point where serious questions concerning Tryl’s own motives are being asked.

Did he sacrifice No Platform purely to raise his own profile, with a calculating eye fixed on his own future political career? Or is he really so naive as to believe that “free speech” is an absolute, and that some of the most poisonous characters on the extreme fringe of British politics should be given platforms from which to espouse their creed of hate because Luke Tryl and his idealistic young friends have the arrogance of mind to believe that they are capable of “exposing” and “refuting” their arguments?

Young Mr Tryl might care to recall that both Griffin and Irving are veterans of the legal system, and have crossed swords with some of the best legal minds available. In Griffin’s case a lengthy trial failed to “refute” him, while in Irving’s the sharpest barristers took weeks to nail the man down.

What hope do Mr Tryl and those of like mind believe they have in “exposing” and “refuting” their arguments - assuming, of course, that people of Mr Tryl’s apparent high calibre are on hand to do the refuting?

No Platform having been breached for no particularly convincing reason by OUDS, students at the University of East Anglia have leapt in to widen the crack, claiming that free debate is the only way to tackle extremism.

We might be forgiven for asking the simple question - on what basis is this dogmatic pronouncement made, when every scrap of available evidence and our own long experience tells us that No Platform has achieved that end admirably?

The UEA’s student union displays the same breathtaking arrogance spiced with naiveté (we assume it to be naiveté) as that falling from the lips of Mr Tryl. According to them:

If fascist groups were to come to campus to debate, our representatives should be inside the room arguing with them and proving them wrong, not just protesting pointlessly outside

thus missing the point that any invitation extended to fascist groups to debate is in itself an admission that political hate organisations are qualitatively no different to other political organisations; and again making the arrogant assumption that, when faced with some of the wiliest veteran speakers of the extreme right, it is a given that the fresh-faced students will prove them wrong.

The UEA students further say:

If we ban these groups, we give them the moral high ground - they can claim they are unfairly treated and accuse those who do believe in democracy of being hypocrites

Hello?

Hasn’t that been exactly the position for the last three decades? Has it harmed anybody other than the fascists themselves, as was the whole intention?

Then we have:

[Perceived objection to new policy] ‘Fascist/racist groups will attack people [on campus], especially ethnic minorities, LGBT students and other discriminated against groups.’

This may be true. However, if it is, this is a matter for the police as it would be a criminal offence. You cannot assume people are guilty, however unpleasant they are, before they act.

So that’s all fine and dandy then. What this seems to be saying is that those lovers of free speech who feel themselves impelled to invite hate groups onto campus will take no responsibility for the actions of their esteemed guests, which must be dealt with by the police - presumably after people have been hurt, since “you cannot assume people are guilty … before they act”.

It’s a risk the “ethnic minorities, LGBT students and other discriminated against groups” will just have to take, apparently for the sake of somebody else’s “free speech”.

No Platform has hurt organisations like the BNP as nothing else could. They know it and we know it.

They know that the needless (and perhaps self-serving) actions of Luke Tryl and the OUDS represent an important first strike against No Platform, and could be a major step along the road that eventually will lead the BNP into the sun-lighted uplands of craved-for respectability.

Already the BNP are crowing that No Platform is broken, and that the remaining dominos will fall. In their fevered collective imagination the likes of Griffin and Darby are about to park their ample backsides on the breakfast TV sofas and to take their places as equals amongst the great and good on Question Time.

We must break the spell.

The breach is not yet so wide as to be beyond repair, and we understand that moves are afoot within the relevant organisations to restore the status quo.

No Platform must then be applied with renewed vigour.

It is a point of honour amongst liberals to claim that though they may disagree with another person’s point of view, they will fight to the death for the other’s right to say it. While the danger of death is remote, this well-known slogan is empty cant.

Allow me to rephrase it:

Though I may disagree with another person’s point of view, I will do all in my power to preserve the other’s right to say it - unless that other’s point of view is founded upon hate and bigotry, in which case I will do all in my power to suppress it.

The uprising against facism: Students storm Oxford Union debate

The principle that everyone is entitled to their say, however obnoxious their opinions might be, was put to the test at the Oxford Union last night as hundreds of protesters gathered to voice their disapproval of the two men from the extreme right whom the illustrious debating chamber had invited there to speak.

One of the guests, the BNP leader Nick Griffin, heads an organisation that wants to see millions of people deported from the UK because they do not regard them as truly British.

He was due to share a platform with the historian David Irving, who has courted notoriety for decades by claiming that Hitler did not give the order to commit genocide, that there were no gas chambers and that six million Jews were not killed by the Nazis.

Scuffles broke out as anti-fascist groups yelled "Shame on you" at members filing into the union building, and the police shut the gates with the chamber only half full. While a handful of students crushed against the main gate to create a diversion, 30 others scaled the wall and barged past the tight security, occupying the area around the debating table until they were persuaded to leave.

"I hope we're not giving Griffin further publicity by doing this," said Peter Simpson, a student at Essex University who stormed the chamber, "but history has shown that you need to draw the line with fascists. I think a lot of people are here because they know what happened in the Second World War and they don't want it to happen again."

Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP due to join the debate, criticised Thames Valley Police for "failing to put a cordon around the Union", allowing the protestors to barge through.

"The failure of the police is outrageous," he said as he told students in the chamber of plans to split the speakers after the university authorities decided it was too dangerous to walk Mr Griffin and Mr Irving across the quadrangle to the debating hall. The police have failed to provide for the safety of this event; failed to provide for the safety of this going ahead as planned. I'm very disappointed. The police imply that they don't have enough resources to move people away from the perimeter or that it is not their job."

In order to get the debate under way, the speakers were split into two groups, with Mr Irving, jailed last year in Austria after pleading guilty to Holocaust denial, speaking in the main chamber, and Mr Griffin, convicted of incitement to racial hatred over material denying the Holocaust in 1998, in a cramped room in the main university building.

Warned to expect a maelstrom of abuse, they had avoided the main demonstration by arriving in separate black cabs, 10 minutes apart and 90 minutes early. The debate – on how far the freedom of speech should extend – finally started more than an hour late at 10pm.

Mr Irving defended accusations that his publications and speeces denied the existence of the Holocaust. "I still refuse to be bowed. I am not going to write what they want me to write. I'm going to write what I find in the archives," he said.

Across the yard, Mr Griffin went head-to-head with two student debaters. "The majority of racist attacks are on white people by members of ethnic minority communities," he said. "Those people outside are a mob and they could kill. Had they grown up in Nazi Germany they would have made splendid Nazis. Any restriction on free speech is dangerous. You start by saying people should not speak and you end up with burning people at the stake. Free speech is an absolute, it is universal."

Mr Irving, reported to have left at 10.45pm to a chorus of jeers from waiting demonstrators, said that disagreeing with some elements of the "whole package" did not make him a Holocaust denier. He had been invited to speak at the Oxford Union seven times, he said, but security fears had put paid to any chance of appearing. Speaking at the Union was something he cherished, he added, saying that the most important thing that any student listening to him could do was to think for themselves.

The president of the Oxford Union, Luke Tryl, was unconvinced. "I think David Irving came out of that looking pathetic," he said "I said in my introduction that I found his view repugnant and abhorrent because I wanted that on record."

Outside, some protesters chanted "Kill Tryl", to which the Union president said: "I don't think they do their cause any favours by inciting violence. That is my only regret."

Last night's meeting breached an unwritten agreement observed for years by the mainstream political parties – not to give the far right a public platform. Instead, it fell back on a much older principle, summed up in a maxim attributed to the French philosopher Voltaire: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Mr Tryl, who has been under intense pressure to cancel the event, defended the decision to go ahead. He said: "David Irving and Nick Griffin have awful and abhorrent views but the best way to defeat those views is through debate.

"I remain committed to the principle that free speech has to prevail. I really worry about how the far right has been able to portray themselves as free-speech martyrs and I hope that this sort of debate will help dispel that myth – to show that the liberal mainstream are prepared to take them on and beat them in debate."

A minority of the students gathered outside the building agreed with Mr Tryl. Kudzh Ranga, a black law graduate living in the city, said he supported the right of Mr Griffin and Mr Irving to speak. "Though I don't agree with [Mr Irving's] stance on racism and the Holocaust I think it is only proper to let him come and address the general public," he said.

But most students and protesters in the street vehemently disagreed. They included Jean Kaigamba, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. He said: "I'm flabbergasted that people who claim to be intellectuals invite extremists in the name of free speech to give them a platform and let them air their perverted view."

David Green, a former committee member of the Oxford Union, said he had resigned from the organisation in protest. "What the union is doing today is extremely irresponsible – namely giving prominence to Holocaust deniers, people who are completely discredited," he said.

Independent

Protesters force way into debate

Protesters have forced their way into the Oxford Union where BNP leader Nick Griffin and controversial historian David Irving are due to speak.

The group of 30 pushed their way into the hall where they are staging a sit-down protest at the debating table. Earlier, a crowd staged a sit-down protest outside the gates of the building, preventing around half the students due to attend from getting in. About 500 people chanted anti-fascist slogans and jeered "shame on you".

Anti-racism campaigners say the two men should not be given a platform to speak at the debate in St Michael's Street, Oxford. Police on horseback are patrolling the area.

Martin Mcluskey, from the Oxford University Students' Union, said: "What we are doing here tonight at the Oxford Union is putting them on a platform that will give them legitimacy and credibility. It is as if we are saying that we agree with what they are saying and that we think it is valid."

Novelist Anne Atkins, who is participating in the debate, said controversial views should not be silenced but exposed. "When you say that the majority view is always right I think that is a deeply dangerous and disturbing thing to say. I am not for a moment saying that I agree with David Irving or Nick Griffin but I am saying that once you start having truth by democracy you risk silencing some of the most important prophets we have ever had."

Mr Griffin and Mr Irving arrived hours before the 2000 GMT start of the debate and were escorted into the building.

MP Dr Julian Lewis has also resigned his membership of the Oxford debating union in protest describing the two men as "a couple of scoundrels" in his resignation letter.

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. Mr Irving was imprisoned for three years after pleading guilty to Holocaust denial in Austria.

BBC

A call from Searchlight - No nazi-lovers in Oxford!

Searchlight calls on all anti-fascists to join the mass picket of the Oxford Union in the event that BNP leader Nick Griffin and the convicted criminal and liar David Irving are allowed to speak.

The demo will start at 7pm on Monday 26 November outside the Oxford Union, St Michael Street, Oxford.

It is supported by Oxford University Student Union, Oxford Unite Against Fascism, Oxford Trades Council, Oxford University Labour Club, Oxford Unison Health, the National Union of Students, the Union of Jewish Students and Searchlight.

The latest news is that Irving is claiming a prior engagement in Liverpool that evening. Griffin has been keeping very quiet about putting in an appearance.

Either way it is important for everybody to show their defiance against the attempts of the extreme right to spread their message of hate in universities.

Oxford braced for protest over BNP

Hundreds of protesters are expected to gather at Oxford University after students yesterday voted to allow BNP leader Nick Griffin to speak at their union. Controversial historian David Irving, who was jailed for Holocaust denial, has also been invited to the free speech event tomorrow.

Their presence on the list of speakers had already prompted a series of high-profile withdrawals from the platform, including Defence Secretary Des Browne.

Despite opposition, the Oxford Union Debating Society members voted by a margin of two-to-one to extend an invite to Griffin. Martin McCluskey, president of the Oxford Student Union, said it was "disgraceful" the pair were being given the same platform as past speakers who included Mother Theresa and the Dalai Lama.

Anti-fascist leaders, who were organising a demonstration at tomorrow's event, have claimed that some union members were excluded from the vote. Sabby Dhalu, secretary of campaign group Unite Against Fascism, said: "If the event goes ahead as it stands, it does not even have the appearance of a 'debate'. Oxford Union will have to hold itself responsible for any subsequent repercussions on the threats to the safety of students if it proceeds with this decision."

Lee Jasper, secretary of the National Assembly Against Racism, added: "Oxford Union is jeopardising the safety of the students by continuing with this event. It is not too late to rescind these invites. Oxford Union gathers growing condemnation with every moment it continues being complicit with facilitating a meeting promoting fascism and Holocaust denial."

The move was also opposed by the university's Muslim and Jewish societies.

Defending its decision, the Oxford Union Debating Society said it was important to give people of all views a platform. Luke Tryl, president of the society, said: "They will be speaking in the context of a forum in which there will be other speakers to challenge and attack their views in a head-to-head manner."

The university's newspaper, Cherwell, has quoted Duncan Money, a second-year student, as saying he received death threats after criticising fascist groups in an internet blog. He said: "My family has been threatened, my friends have been threatened and I've been threatened. Someone rang in the middle of the night and said they would cut my throat."

The Scotsman

BNP to speak to Oxford students

An Oxford union has voted to let the British National Party (BNP) leader and a controversial historian speak at a free speech event on Monday.

Despite opposition, the Oxford Union Debating Society members voted by a margin of 2 to 1 to continue to extend an invite to the BNP's Nick Griffin. David Irving, who was jailed for Holocaust denial, will also be invited.

The move was opposed by the Oxford Student Union and the university's Muslim and Jewish societies.

The Oxford Union Debating Society said it was important to give people of all views a platform. Luke Tryl, president of the society, said: "The men were not being given a platform to extol their views, but were coming to talk about the limits for free speech. They will be speaking in the context of a forum in which there will be other speakers to challenge and attack their views in a head to head manner."

Jailed

Mr Griffin, the leader of the far-right party, 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.

Mr Irving was imprisoned for three years after pleading guilty to Holocaust denial in Austria. But he denied being a Holocaust denier as he said he had no alternative but to plead guilty to the charge.

The union said all tickets for the event, which were only available to its members - who are mainly students - had gone.

A rally in protest at the invitation was held on Tuesday and among those speaking there were Holocaust survivors.

Stephen Altmann-Richer, co-president of the Oxford University Jewish Society, said that while freedom of speech was important it was "overshadowed in this instance".

"I don't think these people should be invited to the Oxford Union, by having them speak, it legitimises their views," he said.

BBC

Oxford Union is no place for Irving

By Jonathan Hoffman

As a former JCR Vice-President and JSoc member at Oxford, I have taken a keen interest in the invitation to David Irving and Nick Griffin to speak at a Union forum on ‘Free Speech’ on Monday.

I spoke out against the invitation at the Union’s Middle East debate on 23 October and soon after I placed a petition on the Prime Minister’s website. The strength of opposition to the invitation can be seen from the popularity of the petition: In less than three weeks nearly 1400 signed, making it one of the fastest growing petitions ever. We now await Gordon Brown’s response.

We have been accused of opposing free speech, but that is a gross misrepresentation. David Irving is a Holocaust Denier and Nick Griffin is the Chairman of the BNP which incites race hatred. Let’s take each in turn. In German and Austria, Holocaust denial is a crime. Because the UK’s history is very different, it would be a mistake to make denial illegal. But that does not mean that Irving should have a platform at the Union - which remains one of the most sought after debating societies in the world. Since his release from an Austrian prison nearly a year ago, Irving’s public appearances have been rare and confined to fringe events – a bizarre World War Two re-enactment in a field in Kent, for example. That is where a deliberately fraudulent academic - whose purpose was to rehabilitate the Nazis – belongs - not at Oxford, a place of careful scholarship. For Irving to speak at the Union is insulting to the ethos of the University and to those who strive to uphold it. It also sets a dreadful precedent. There is no doubt that Irving would try to use his appearance to give respectability to his obscene cause and to gain other platforms. Similarly for the BNP, for which Griffin has strived to gain respectability, particularly in the fertile climate of growing opposition to Islamism. Racists have no place in an institution which prizes scholarship, regardless of the race of the scholar.

Furthermore, the pair are entirely the wrong speakers at a forum on ‘Free Speech’. What the ‘free speech’ advocates at the Union miss is that the right cannot exist without legal and other constraints. Presumably one purpose of such a forum is to explore how those constraints might change over time and space. But using the analogy of a football game, the appropriate people to do this are the referees, not the players. That points to speakers such as Trevor Phillips or Chris Smith (the Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority) – not Irving or Griffin.

Indeed the law surrounds the right of free speech with constraints. The Human Rights Act (1988) says that it is conditional on security and public safety and the rights of others. Wherever racist speakers have a platform, the incidence of racist attacks tends to rise. The trophy of the invitation to these two has been held aloft on Far Right websites which have also published the names of the Presidents of the JSoc. How can it now be responsible – or indeed legal – for the University Proctors not to step in?

Finally if these invitations stand, the Union would be wide open to the charge of inconsistency. Just a month ago, Norman Finkelstein – who has tried to devalue the Holocaust – was disinvited from the Middle East debate. So much for ‘free speech’ at the Oxford Union.

Jonathan Hoffman is the founder of Dayenu

Totally Jewish

Union to vote on BNP debate

A controversial Oxford Union debate involving the BNP's leader and a Holocaust denier could be cancelled.

Historian David Irving, jailed in Austria for denying the Nazi execution of millions of Jews and British National Party leader Nick Griffin have both been invited to the Union's Free Speech Forum on Monday.

The invitation of the two men to speak at the Union has caused such a storm of protest that a rally has been planned in Oxford tonight and Defence Secretary Des Browne will boycott another debate he was invited to.

But last night Union president Luke Tryl said it would be put to members of the Union to vote on the issue on Friday A spokesman for the BNP said it was disappointed to hear the event might be cancelled. Mr Irving was unavailable for comment.

Mr Tryl said: "I want the final decision to be with the members of the society, and if they decide that we shouldn't invite Nick Griffin and David Irving, then I will cancel the whole event."

Mr Irving was arrested in 2005 by Austrian police for glorifying and identifying with the Nazis, and denying the Holocaust in a speech he made in Austria in 1989. He admitted the crime of holocaust denial and was imprisoned from February to December 2006, but released after an appeal.

Mr Griffin became the leader of the BNP in 1999.

Campaigners will be at Oxford's Town Hall, in St Aldate's, tonight, calling on the Oxford Union to retract the invitations. Unite Against Fascism has organised the rally in conjunction with Oxford University Students' Union.

Martin McCluskey, president of Oxford University Students' Union, said: "First and foremost, Oxford University Students' Union has been concerned about the safety of students and local residents of Oxford.

"We have made it clear we support freedom of speech and any genuine debate on it. Where the BNP and Holocaust deniers go, violence follows."

However, Raghib Ali, one of the founders of the Oxford Islam and Muslim Awareness Project, said there were dangers in depriving the two men of a platform.

Dr Ali, who is attending the rally tonight, said: "The views these men hold are dangerous and lead to further prejudice. But by not giving them a platform you push them underground and make them more dangerous."

Various speakers who were due to take part in debates at the Union are boycotting speaking engagements. These include television presenter June Sarpong, Labour MP Austin Mitchell and the Defence Secretary, Des Browne.

Oxford Mail

Oxford Union faces boycott over invite to Holocaust denier

The Defence Secretary, Des Browne, is leading a group of politicians and public figures who are boycotting an increasingly divided Oxford Union over the decision by its president to host a talk involving the Holocaust-denying historian David Irving and the BNP leader, Nick Griffin.

The event, entitled Free Speech Forum, which is planned for next Monday, has provoked uproar at the university and beyond. Some Oxford students say they have received death threats and fear they will be targeted by far-right groups.

More than a thousand people have signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling on Gordon Brown to condemn the talk. A protest rally in Oxford against what many students see as a cynical publicity stunt by the union's current president, Luke Tryl, is planned for tomorrow.

A string of politicians and celebrities have now pulled out of events at the world's most famous debating society, the credibility of which appears to have been badly damaged by Mr Tryl, a former chairman of the Halifax branch of Conservative Future, the Tory party's youth wing, who sees himself as a future prime minister.

Among those who have cancelled appearances are the television presenter June Sarpong, the Labour MPs Chris Bryant and Austen Mitchell, and Mr Browne. Sources close to Mr Browne said he did not wish to be "on the same programme as such people", and that "if he had known they had been invited he never would have agreed to speak in the first place".

Mr Tryl is said to be increasingly isolated in the society. One union insider said: "He has sacrificed so many great guests, simply for the sake of a fascist and a Holocaust denier to speak."

Denis McShane, the former Europe minister, pulled out of a meeting at the union last Thursday night after writing to Mr Tryl to object to plans for "two notorious anti-Semites to be given a platform at the Oxford Union". Mr McShane said: "To put four-star Jew-haters on to a prestigious platform like the Oxford Union is to validate modern anti-Semitism. If the Oxford Union has a right-wing ex-Toryboy president, he is entitled to invite whoever he wants. But those who think there should not be a platform for Jew-baiters are entitled to their view, too."

Asked about his position Mr Tryl, who describes himself as a "very liberal, modern person", said: "The BNP are in a minority, but they gain support when they say the liberals are silencing them." Pressed on BNP policies, however, Mr Tryl called them "abhorrent".

Yair Sivan, of the Union of Jewish Students, said: "There is no place for racists and fascists at universities ... Democracy does include the right to free speech, but it also includes the right to tell extremists they are not welcome – that democratic right would be one far more fitting for the Oxford Union."

The Oxford University newspaper, Cherwell, said students had received death threats from neo-Nazis. It is believed that BNP supporters are planning to "target" demonstrators at tomorrow's rally and at the event next Monday.

Divided union

* October 1994

Kermit the Frog was invited, prompting accusations of "dumbing down". Kermit told the 1,000-strong audience: "The responsibility of representing an entire species rests upon my shoulders. Frogs usually only get in here by being in an experiment."

* May 1996

O J Simpson made his only public speech in Britain after the not guilty verdict in his trial for the murder of his wife and her friend.

* October 2000

Ann Widdecombe pulled out of a debate after her proposal of a zero-tolerance approach to cannabis use was followed by eight shadow cabinet members confessing they had smoked the drug.

* March 2001

Michael Jackson lectured on his plans for a universal bill of children's rights. The speech, made after a teenage boy alleged the singer had molested him, was met with barely muffled sniggers.

Independent

Fascists have no place in Oxford

Unite Against Fascism has learnt that Oxford Union debating society has invited Fascist BNP leader Nick Griffin and convicted Holocaust denier David Irving to a debate on 'Freedom of Speech' on 26 November. UAF understands they both have been confirmed for this 'debate'.

Wherever fascists have a presence, violence and intimidation increases. Fascists stand against the principles of freedom of speech and as history shows, they destroy all opposition by physically annihilating entire people and ending all freedoms. They represent a real threat to people in Oxford. This is why, as in the past, the National Union of Students and Unite Against Fascism have joined forces to stop this event from taking place by calling on Oxford Union to reverse its decision to invite Griffin and Irving.

Gemma Tumelty, NUS President said: "The Holocaust denier, David Irving and leader of the fascist BNP, Nick Griffin have no place in our multicultural society. NUS utterly opposes racism and fascism wherever it arises and will certainly oppose any attempt by Oxford Union to invite Irving and Griffin to speak.

"The pair's racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and Islamophobic views threaten the safety of our diverse university communities. For example, wherever the BNP is active, racist attacks and other hate crimes increase.

"With freedom of speech comes the responsibility not to abuse it. All students have a right to learn in an environment free from discrimination or harassment. It is unacceptable to expose students and staff to the possibility of attacks and to give a platform of academic respectability to Griffin and Irving. We will certainly be active in a campaigning to ensure that they are not given a platform."

Unite Against Fascism Joint Secretary Weyman Bennett said: "Fascist organisations such as the British National Party, are not normal political parties and should not be treated as such. Many leading BNP members have convictions for violent offences including bombings.

"Fascism stands for the annihilation of entire communities and the complete destruction of freedom of speech, democracy and human rights. The BNP denies the Nazi Holocaust and calls for an 'all white Britain' which could only be achieved through murderous violence.

"The infamous images of fascist students burning books shortly after Hitler's ascent to power should serve to remind us, both that our campuses are not immune from fascist ideas, and that fascism is itself the complete antithesis of reason, logic and rational debate.

"Millions were murdered in the Holocaust, not because their arguments weren't good enough, but because those who could have stopped fascism under-estimated the threat that it represented. Many thought its flaws so obvious they could easily be exposed. Once allowed a foothold fascism unleashed its campaign of violence and terror. If we can learn from the mistakes of the past we will not be forced to repeat them."

UAF

BNP leader and Holocaust denier invited to Oxford Union

· Dictator among those asked to address students
· University debating society under fire

The Oxford Union debating society came under fire last night after its president said he had approached Holocaust denier David Irving, British National party chairman Nick Griffin and the Belarussian dictator, Alexander Lukoshenko, to speak at forthcoming events.

Luke Tryl said he had asked Mr Irving and Mr Griffin to speak at the union's Free Speech Forum, due to take place at the end of November, adding that Mr Lukoshenko, the Belarussian president, accused of a string of human rights abuses, had been approached to address students later in the term.

"The Oxford Union is famous for is commitment to free speech and although I do think these people have awful and abhorrent views I do think Oxford students are intelligent enough to challenge and ridicule them," he told the Guardian, adding that no formal decision on who would be invited had been made.

However, the move drew widespread criticism from student groups and anti-fascist campaigners.

In a joint statement, Oxford Jewish Society presidents Daniel Bloch and Steven Altmann-Richer said: "It will be a disgrace if these discredited speakers are allowed a platform at a forum on free speech. They have an embarrassing history of disregard for legal restrictions on it. It will certainly go down as a black mark on the reputation of the Oxford Union."

Duncan Money, a second-year student at the university who says he has suffered a series of threats from rightwing extremists, said: "It is disappointing that the Oxford Union has chosen to promote and legitimise fascism ... Doubtless the controversy will bring them feverish excitement but for those of us who confront hate-filled bigots and are on the receiving end of death threats because of it, the issue is a bit more serious."

The BNP said Mr Griffin would attend the event if it went ahead. However, the invitation to Mr Lukoshenko was blocked by the Foreign Office, which said he was subject to an EU travel ban.

Mr Irving, who told the Guardian last month that he was launching a comeback speaking tour of the UK, denied that he had received any formal approach from the Oxford Union but added that he would like to speak to the students there.

"I have had many invitations to speak there in the past but they normally get withdrawn after threats of violence and intimidation. It is a pity because I think there are a lot of students who would like to hear what I have to say."

Last month the discredited historian told the Guardian that he believed the Jews were responsible for what happened to them during the second world war and that the "Jewish problem" was at the root of most of the wars of the last 100 years.

Guardian