Mary, Queen of Trots

Some extra details to this story about how Ben Kentish invited Marine Le Pen to speak at Cambridge Union in 2013. Kentish invited Le Pen two years after she had taken over the National Front from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Jean-Marie was the Honorary President of the National Front until 2015, when he was eventually suspended for refusing to turn up to a disciplinary hearing about him saying the Nazi gas chambers were merely a "detail" of the second world war. Two months before her invite from Kentish, French authorities made a formal application to have Marine Le Pen stripped of Parliamentary immunity so she could be privately prosecuted for inciting racial hatred for implying Muslims praying in the street in French cities was akin to the Nazi occupation of France. Although she was eventually acquitted, her father WAS convicted in 2012 for his comments underplaying the Holocaust and the Nazi occupation of France - despite which, he remained a Honorary President of the National Front until 2015. That's right - Kentish invited the leader of a Party whose Honorary President had already been found guilty for offences of downplaying the Holocaust. The Cambridge event was opposed by Hope Not Hate. 200 activists from Unite Against Fascism turned up on the day to protest her appearance. Look at the lovely photo here of the protestors clashing with police. The visit was also opposed by the president of the Cambridge University Student's Union, who said it was particularly insensitive because the EDL were planning to march in Cambridge the following week. She said: "Given the imminent demonstration planned by EDL in Cambridge on 23 February, the invitation by the Union Society to Marine Le Pen is more than just insensitive, it will have a direct effect on the safety of many of our students. "It disregards the realities of fascism and the current context of Cambridge, failing to recognise that her speaking on Tuesday will only give the EDL more confidence in their march." Before the "debate could expose her" crowd pipes up, Marine Le Pen didn't actually do a debate at Cambridge. Instead she was invited to deliver a lengthy speech with questions from the crowd, letting her set out National Front's vision (and where she could repeatedly recommend people go read the NF website, helpfully giving the URL). During that, she attacked people coming to France with their own "laws," "food" and "clothes" who were failing to "assimilate" into French culture. Ben Kentish called the Greens an extremist party just a few weeks ago for its Zionism is Racism motion, and attacks Zeteo for an article where a Jewish journalist interviews a Jewish expert on antisemitism - but is Ben really the best judge of issues of antisemitism and prejudice considering he previously invited and platformed a wretched Islamophobe from a Party with a Holocaust-minimiser serving as its Honorary Life President?