Dear Mr Davies,

You have no doubt seen the undignified scenes outside Parliament when a flash mob of Unite Against Fascism demonstrators attacked Nick Griffin with eggs and placards. According to the BBC, a tourist caught up in the melee was injured and had to be treated by paramedics: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8091605.stm

I was shocked to watch the footage of this incident, not least because I found myself feeling a modicum of sympathy (however briefly) for Nick Griffin, of all people. The BNP could not buy better publicity; had this not happened I would not have known that Messrs Griffin and Brons had held a news conference at all. Instead Nick Griffin toured the TV studios as – absurdly enough – the injured party.

As Liberal Democrats, I think we can both agree that political violence is always unacceptable. I think we can also agree on the importance of free speech – which is why Lib Dem MPs have been fighting to let people demonstrate outside Parliament. But to the official representatives of Unite Against Fascism (Donna Guthrie: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8091727.stm and Martin Smith: http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/domestic_politics/bnp8217s+griffin+under+egg+attack/3202357 ) argue that free speech is a right only for some people. Ms Guthrie announced on the BBC “We don’t believe in free speech for fascists.”

Clearly there are limits to lawful speech. The difference is that liberals such as you and I see the limit as being defined by the content of the speech – for example, incitement to murder. UAF seem to see the limit as being defined by who is speaking, not what they are saying. Nick Griffin preening himself over how many votes he got cannot plausibly be defined as incitement.

If I was an MEP I would be pretty unhappy to share my constituency with Nick Griffin, so I can understand why you are a listed supporter of Unite Against Fascism. I also understand that such organisations may list people as supporters without their permission, but the fact is your name is listed on their website as a supporter: http://www.uaf.org.uk/aboutUAF.asp?choice=4

But I would like to ask you to publicly distance yourself from UAF and their actions and to demand that your name be removed from their list. It is not just that their actions are criminal (assault, aggravated by its political motivation), but also that they are so completely counter-productive. I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,
Niklas Smith

Junior Treasurer,
Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats

We stand for freedom of speech and for the rights of elected representatives to hold a press conference outside parliament no matter how much we disagree with their views.

Mill points out the advantages of Open Debate in exposing the weakness in arguments of opponents of freedom.

Those MP’s supporting this group are misguided – I believe they would respond to logical argument and that threats aginst them are unnecessary.

I would have to check with his office, but I guess a short UAF email appeared among the many addressed to him. His staff thought: “what right-thinking person is not against fascism?” and, in ignorance, signed him up.

Who are the Lib Dems on the list? The only names I recognised were Alistair Carmichael MP and Chris Davies MEP. I will also e-mail them.