Protesters attempt to disrupt controversial Oxford debate

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

OXFORD (AFP) — Protesters attempted to disrupt appearances by a Holocaust-denying historian and a far-right politician Monday at Oxford University's prestigious student debating club.

A group of demonstrators managed to break through a security cordon outside the Oxford Union and staged a sit-in protest on stage, ahead of speeches by David Irving, who was jailed in Austria over his views on the Holocaust, and British National Party head Nick Griffin.

Around 500 protesters, much greater than the number of students actually attending the debate, surrounded the club's building Monday evening chanting anti-fascist slogans and waving placards as Irving and Griffin arrived.

Organisers of the free speech debate have resisted pressure to withdraw the invitations to...