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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

[Traditional enemies of free speech]