Traditional enemy gags Irving visit to Cambridge Union

Tuesday, February 18, 2003 -- CAMBRIDGE university Union today cancelled its invitation to David Irving to lead the debate defending free speech at the prestigious Cambridge Union on April 24, thus joining a long list of British and Irish universities that have come under pressure to prevent him speaking.

The invitation was extended to Mr Irving in a letter from new Union President Edward Cumming earlier this month. The letter stated that the university -- home of the chief expert witness hired by Deborah Lipstadt, professor Richard ("Skunky") Evans -- would debate the motion that "bad people" should be gagged.

Mr Irving, who has been banned on several occasions recently from speaking in Britain's universities, noted in his diary: "Cambridge Union invite me to Free Speech debate April 24; here we go round the Mulberry Bush again."

Accepting the invitation to lead the opposition to this outrageous theme, he replied to Mr Cumming: "It is several years since I last spoke at the Union, seconding Auberon Waugh I believe." He predicted:

"You may expect some opposition to your choice when the time comes, and I am mailing to you today my two latest works, "Hitler's War" (Millennium Edition, 2002) and "Churchill's War", vol. ii: "Triumph in Adversity" which will enable you to brandish them at my critics. I was invited four times by the Oxford Union in the last 12 months, and they caved in each time and withdrew; what else would you expect of them."

Mr Irving also debated at the Cambridge Union with the famous broadcaster and humorist Magnus Pyke, and in 1977 he attracted an audience of 1,000 students to the Fabians Society when he defended his flagship book Hitler's War. The invitation on that occasion came from undergraduate student Robert Harris, who later became a famous BBC producer and novelist ("Fatherland" and "Enigma").

As recently as last week Union president Mr Cumming expressed pleasure at Mr Irving's acceptance: "I am delighted that you are coming!" Confirming that Mr Irving would lead the opposition to the anti-Free Speech motion, he added: "I feel that this way you would be defending your right to speak about what you believe (rather than specifically what your views are) and in this way we can best deal with the critics. The argument over whether you can defend your right to speak is one which I am more than willing to fight and win!"

NEWS of the withdrawal of the Cambridge invitation was telephoned to Mr Irving as he drove into a snow-decked Indianapolis, on his United State speaking tour, at 7 a.m. this morning. (Two of his pre-arranged speaking functions, to army veterans at Louisville, and at the university of Kentucky, scheduled for today and tomorrow, were also cancelled after those bodies came under outside pressure, but he speaks in Louisville on the evening of the 20th.)

David Irving comments: LORD Janner, the former Greville Janner, is a recent president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He has worked for over fifteen years to pressure publishers like Macmillan Ltd to violate their contracts to publish my works of history; he was spotted in the High Court in London on several occasions during the £6million Lipstadt libel trial, and he sat next to the Israeli Ambassador and his armed security guards and other VIPs in the courtroom on the day that Mr Justice Gray read out his perverse judgment against me in my action against Lipstadt.    Well-versed in gagging techniques, Janner has successfully kept out of the press the charges circulated against him by a rent-boy, who has tried in vain to have police investigate his allegations. Lord Janner has always denied these allegations as shameful and scandalous. Related file: How Janner's Holocaust Educational Trust tried to get Macmillan's to dump Mr Irving as an author

Apologising for the discourtesy, Mr Cumming explained that he had fought hard to defend the invitation when the Executive Committee met today, but two of those present, whom he characterised as 'members of the traditional enemy,' held out against the invitation, and he was outvoted. Mr Irving politely suggested that such opponents should be invited to state their reasons, and defend their case for silencing him on the debating floor of the Union, because this kind of gag is precisely what the debate is about.

The Cambridge Union stationery reveals that their patron is Lord Janner (see box on right)

Earlier this year the Cambridge University Forum also secretly invited Mr Irving to speak in March, but they too have been forced to withdraw their invitation, citing security concerns.