The Oxford Union freak show
When I was a student at the University of Oxford in the 1990s I did not join the Oxford Union Society. It seemed to me self-important, self-indulgent, smug, juvenile, stupid, and irrelevant. How right I was. Just after I left Oxford the Union got itself into a mess over an invitation to National Front and later British National Party leader and would-be British führer John Tyndall; ‘free speech’ was the justification. The Tyndall debate was only cancelled after a series of nazi nail-bombings in London in 1999, killing three people and injuring over 100, reminded everyone just how far the extreme right’s commitment to free speech actually extends.
Well, they are doing it again: two prize peddlers of lies and hate, pseudo-historian David Irving and pseudo-politician Nick Griffin, have been invited by the Union to take part in a debate about - guess what - free speech. Both these individuals have a right to state their views (within the law) and the Union has the right to invite whoever it wishes to take part in its activities, but let’s not pretend the invitation has anything to do with great issues of free speech. It’s just another example of Oxford Union immaturity, equivalent to a toddler throwing his breakfast on the floor out of fear of being ignored. The Oxford Union should be ignored. It is a pointless, self-indulgent attention-seeking freak show.
Sadly, it isn’t ignored, however; here I am writing a blog post about it, for instance. Lots of people are fooled by the presence of the name ‘Oxford’ into thinking that it must be something important, like the boat race or that fancy marmalade that isn’t made there any more. People who should know better think it’s in some way an official part of Oxford University (example here). Others have some vague idea that there must be something fine, admirable and even inherently democratic about the place. Alas, no: healthier and better-informed debate, with a much wider and nicer range of people taking part in it, can be found any night of the week in my local pub.
There’s little chance that the Oxford Union will stop playing its silly games, but I live in hope that the world will at least stop paying any attention to them.
