Real History and Sippenhaft, UK-style The Index to the Traditional Enemies of Free Speech Alphabetical index (text) [image added by this website] London, Wing Commander John Irving on his farm in Wiltshire, April 2003 Mandrake [column] by Tim Walker Race relations IN the field of race relations, there can be few men more reviled than David Irving the apologist for Hitler who three years ago lost a libel action against an
author who had branded him an “anti-Semite and racist.” David “Nasty” Irving comments: WELL up to the usual reporting standards of the post- Donald MacLachlan Sunday Telegraph. True, I lost a libel action three years ago against Deborah Lipstadt – but nowhere in her book had she branded me either an “anti-Semite” or a “racist.” Those allegations consequently did not figure in the original Trial Pleadings .
Defence counsel Richard Rampton QC decided however to play the “race card” as being the only way of getting their worm of an author off her hook, and he introduced the allegations in her amended defence, put in a few days before the trial began. The judge, Rampton’s old friend and sparring partner Mr Justice Gray , should have spotted this and refused to hear any evidence on either allegation. David’s older brother John , above, has however gone some way towards redeeming the family’s name.
He had been appointed chairman of Wiltshire Racial Equality Council. His tolerance would appear, extraordinarily, to extend even to his errant brother. Nice Irving says: “My brother has his views and I have mine. The idea that brothers should share the same views is yet another form of stereotyping. It’s a great honour and privilege to have been given the job that I have.” Nasty Irving adds: “I can’t think of anyone better for the job.
John doesn’t share my views, but he gives me a lot of moral support. I look up to him enormously, and he is certainly ten times more intelligent than I am.” ©