LONDON — On a cold wet November evening the dreamy spires of Oxford University became the unlikely setting for a new front line between the organization Unite Against Fascism and the far-right British National Party (BNP).
The hallowed Oxford Union Debating Society — which has played host to Mother Teresa, Jimmy Carter, Winston Churchill and Malcolm X — can now add the notorious Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, and David Irving, convicted Holocaust denier. Not so great and not so good.
Despite widespread condemnation, with one Conservative parliamentarian resigning his membership and calling the speakers "scoundrels," the 184-year-old Oxford Union was undeterred amid demonstrations and horse-mounted riot police.