Controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders has won his appeal against exclusion from entry into the UK, reports The Independent.The decision was made by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, with which I have some familiarity with an earlier incarnation when it was the Immigration Appeals Tribunal (actually, there were two of them) during my years working in the Immigration and Nationality Dept of the Home Office.
This is another triumph for the cause of free speech — the second today (i.e. following the "de-gagging" of The Guardian over the reporting of a parliamentary question).
Whether one likes Wilders's views, or appreciates his film Fitna (about Islam), he should have the right to express his views as long as they do not try to incite violence or similar. I haven't encountered any evidence that anything he has said or done could sensibly be categorised in such a way, so in my mind there were no valid grounds for his exclusion from this country in the first place.
Attempts by the Labour Government and their allies to portray Wilders as "an extremist" never held any water, and said far more about his detractors than they ever could about him. This has now effectively been demonstrated. Cranmer puts it well, as he usually does.
Mr Wilders now intends to visit this country as soon as he can.
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Nice one Jaqui, own goal there love.
14 October 2009 at 09:23Quite, banned. Most extremists (many being Labour MPs) over-step the mark at some point and draw a reaction of such ferocity that it overturns that which they were trying to achieve.
14 October 2009 at 20:54So we can thank Jackboot for banning Wilders - he was more than a match for her and he, along with Savage (and the Daily Mail) will savage her back.
If ever a minister deserved it ... ;)
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