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OXFORD UNION debate latest:
OXFORD
Friday, April 27, 2001-- Cherwell,
the Oxford University newspaper, confirms that Richard Rampton
QC has chickened out of the Union debate with David Irving, on
the pretext that he cannot discuss the trial. We recall that his
client Lipstadt also refused to enter the witness box, and
both of them feared exposing Auschwitz "survivors" to
cross-examination by Mr Irving, as Lipstadt admits to author D.D.
Guttenplan.
British newspapers and magazines like The New Statesman are clamouring for the right to cover the historic debate; university officials are refusing to waive the "no press" rule.
Oxford
Union officials are worried by Anti-Nazi
League
(ANAL) threats of criminal violence and the boast that they will
prevent Mr Irving from entering the building on May 10; the city
police are in two minds, the University Marshal has spoken out
against the debate, and the National Union of Students is encouraging
violence on its website. Mr Irving told two student reporters
yesterday afternoon that it will be a bad day for university
traditions if the Oxford Union bows to intimidation. "I am not
frightend of ANAL," he said, "or anybody else for that
matter."
Jewish
Telegraph Agency | News at a Glance
NEW YORK April 30: Britain's Union of Jewish Students is pressing the Oxford Union to cancel a planned address by Holocaust denier David Irving at its debating society on May 10. Plans call for Irving, who lost a high-profile libel lawsuit against Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt last year, to be part of a panel debating freedom of speech at Oxford
