Sorry for the serious tone today, but the decision to cancel the Multiculturalism debate at Durham University involving two bozos from the BNP has got to be the right decision.
How the University ever thought it beneficial to invite BNP MEP National Front lover Andrew Brons (MP for Yorkshire and Humber), and Chris "I don't hate Hitler" Beverley (BNP councillor in Leeds) is beyond me.
What inspirational men.
I don't see how either of these 'politicians' could give valuable points within a debate on a multi-ethnic community.
The Durham University Society had also invited political commentator Kulveer Ranger, and Conservative MP Edward Leigh, but cancelled the whole thing because of proposed violent protests and intimidation to staff and students.
It'll be interesting to see where this one goes with this Freedom of Speech Facebook Group by Durham students.
I'm all for Freedom of Speech, but not when the speech comes from people who have the previous history of these men.
Nick Griffin on the BBC was an interesting way of opening up the debate and hearing the opinions of politicians and the public, but allowing BNP members to speak at a university, on an election year, sounds like part of a campaign. No thank you.
I'm just glad my University, down South, has so far stayed clear of this fascist flop of a political party.
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1 comments:
Hey,
As a student from Durham, I was never supportive of the debate in the first place because I thought it was a bloody stupid idea (there is after all a world of difference between not censoring people and actively listening to them).
However, I do think that since it had been scheduled, the best thing to do was to follow through with it - any other turn of events would have given the BNP unwanted publicity due to an easy ticket to a moral highground. This position is what I believe the freedom of speech group was all about: keeping the moral highground to ourselves.
Of course canceling the debate was no easy decision, and if the threats of violent action had been carried out it would have made for an even BETTER advertising stunt for the BNP ("boo hoo, fascist lefties, look at us poor victims trying to save the country!"), but I still think that cancelling it is by no means a positive turn of events.
Then there's of course also talks of the disgraceful behaviour of the NUS and the UAF, who were quite frankly acting childishly, with their violent threats which is exactly what the BNP is fishing for: even more excuses to discredit liberal thinking.
This all would have never happened, of course, if the debate had never been scheduled - and I agree that debating with those people is a bit of a farce anyway - but because the decision had been made, the best thing would have been to stick by it and debate them into the ground.
So all in all, a shame. It couldn't have been worse than this.
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