St Andrews cancels BNP's invitation to debate
St Andrews has withdrawn its controversial invitation to the leader of the British National Party to speak at a debate. The university's debating society had invited Nick Griffin, the leader of a party which is widely thought to be racist, to speak on a motion that "This house believes that the multicultural experiment has failed".
A barrage of protest was unleashed when the invitation was made public. The NUS has had a no-platform policy for fascists since the early 90s, meaning that it refuses to participate in discussions with them and encourages its members to do the same.
NUS Scotland called on the debating society to withdraw its invitation, saying that the BNP's policies were "contrary to every single principle of the student movement". It also faxed other student unions asking them to put pressure on St Andrews to cancel the debate.
"The far right must be given no chance to recruit on our doorsteps," said NUS Scotland President Melanie Ward.
The Commission for Racial Equality and anti-racism campaigners Positive Action in Housing also joined in the criticism, with the latter accusing the BNP of holding similar views to the Ku Klux Klan and neo-nazis.
However, the debate's organiser, final-year student Peter Blair, defended the invitation. "We believe that the only way to get the truth of what the BNP are saying and to combat them is to do it in public in a debate," he said. "Most of the students will disagree with what Nick Griffin will say, but they still want to go to the debate."
Mr Blair argued that ignoring the problem, and the BNP's recent electoral success in a number of council seats, would not make it go away and would be more dangerous than letting them speak in a debate.
Despite this, though, the debate has been called off, much to the delight of anti-racism organisations.
Mr Griffin condemned the decision. "This is again an example of the violent and intimidating type of leftism towards the patriotic people of the BNP," he said, apparently without a trace of irony.
The words "violent and intimidating" could not, of course, be used to describe any of the BNP's members.
With a general election getting closer the no-platform policy is likely to be tested before long again.
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