Owen Jones, socialist wunderkind and dauphin of the Left, said this week that he would not accept an invitation to speak at the Cambridge Union because they had also invited Marine Le Pen. To be clear, he was not going to be speaking at the same debate as her; he simply wished to boycott the Union altogether because he didn’t believe they should be giving a platform to a fascist. Let us leave aside the fact that Le Pen has, like Jones, been invited onto Newsnight in the past and that the odious hangdog Nick Griffin has, infamously, appeared on BBC Question Time – again, in common with Jones. I am not interested in Owen’s hypocrisy – flagrant though it may be – that is something he must reconcile for himself. Rather, I want to address this notion that one ought not to give a platform to those with repulsive views. Continue reading →