Of those who could vote, a majority at the Oxford Union decided to give a platform to the leader of the BNP Nick Griggin and the Holocaust denier David Irving.
Dr Julian Lewis disagreed and resigned.

Of those who could vote, a majority in the New Forest East constituency decided to give a platform to the person from the Conservative Party.
Dr Julian Lewis MP was delighted to accept.

Two democratic votes and he disagrees with one. Which is fine, he can do that, but the principle that gave those two men the vote gave him his far loftier platform.

If Nick Griffin was speaking in Leicester I would go to see him. I would do so partly because he is not in the political gravy-train so he can actually say what he really does think – unlike Dr Lewis – but also because I think it’s really important that we do give people like him their time on the political soapbox.
You cannot know what you disagree with until you see / hear / touch it. You cannot know what you disagree with until you know what you believe in and why you believe that. There will have been people who voted Dr Lewis into the position simply because he was a Tory. Their parents voted Tory so they will too. Zero active thought. They do it in just the same way that someone else voted for anyone else because they hate the tories. Arguably the people giving the platform at the OU have given far more thought than many of his constituents.
It’s important too that whatever Nick Griffin (I’m concentrating on him because his political agenda is prominent) has to say that we actually do hear it. What he actually says is not what is printed in the newspapers. They have their own political stances and none include British Nationalism. We don’t really know what he says, what he thinks about x or y or z. And we should. We can only argue against what we know. And we only know by giving time and a platform to someone whose views are different.

We make a big deal of being democratic. Maybe we are, maybe we are not. But if we are not, we will get further not by not allowing others to speak.

Stephen Altmann-Richer, co-president of the Oxford University Jewish Society, told the BBC News website that while freedom of speech was important “it is overshadowed in this instance”.
“I don’t think these people should be invited to the Oxford Union, by having them speak, it legitimises their views,” he said.

No it doesn’t. It simply means he gets listened to, and he hears others arguing back. Nothing legitimises a view. It is simply heard. Some will disagree, some will agree and some will go away and think. What they think is almost unimportant but at the end they will be closer and firmer in whatever beliefs they have – and that is a good thing, even if that position is further away than you might be.

Sabby Dhalu, secretary of campaign group Unite Against Fascism also objected. So how far left would I have to go before she objected to me? “Well we hate facism but not that much”. So what she too means is that she supports some of the people who want to unite against facism, but not all. A bit like Dr Lewis with his “I support votes but not this one”.

Not talking to people with other views narrows your own views and hardens your attitude to change.