In 2007 antisemite David Irving and BNP leader Nick Griffin were invited to speak at the Oxford Union.
The new Secretary of State for Education, James Cleverly, told readers of his blog that:
I would not have invited either Griffin or Irving to speak if I were the Chairman of the Union, I’m not, they did. Banning them from speaking, as many protesters demanded, would be a deeply dangerous thing to do. We have laws which cover incitement and if they broke them they should rightly be arrested and prosecuted, but banning them just because you don’t like what they say is a totalitarian act.
