Liberty Alone

It is so good to see all the defense of free speech in relation to the Irving and Griffin invitation to speak at the Oxford Union all over LibDem blogs, including a very interesting description of what the event was actually like.

This sort of defense of the rights of those we vehemently disagree with and the wholesale condemnation of those who use violence to try and curtail the rights of their opponents is part of the heart of liberalism.

My thoughts have been echoed all over the blogs, but the sentiments benefit from being repeated-
As loathsome as we find the positions of such people, as disgusting as we find their views, we will defend their right to express them where they are not using force.
The actions of those who use violence to prevent the right to free speech of others is wrong, be they left or right wing. The true anti-fascist policy is the liberal one of freedom of expression and prohibition of violence.

The hypocrisy of many of the anti-fascists is astounding, but not surprising. The anti-fascists in the 1930s adopted the same tactics, mostly from the Communist Party. Hayek was right in arguing that the Communists and Fascists were fighting for the same anti-liberal support and that their real enemy is the liberal. The same goes for the anti-liberal left and right embodied in the BNP, sections of the Tory Party, Respect (both versions) and some Greens and parts of the Labour Party.

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