ANDREW DOYLE: Meltdown at the Oxford Union.
Harold Macmillan once described the Oxford Union as ‘the last bastion of free speech’. Perhaps this remark made sense when it was uttered back in the 1960s, but it reads today more like a mordant quip. The recent furore over George Abaraonye, the president elect, has all but obliterated the union’s credibility.
Everything we know about Abaraonye tells us that he is profoundly unqualified to lead such an institution. He openly celebrated the shooting of Charlie Kirk, posting on his Instagram account: ‘Charlie Kirk got shot loool’. In a WhatsApp group, he wrote: ‘Charlie Kirk got shot, let’s fucking go’, ‘Scoreboard FM’ and ‘It really writes itself, doesn’t it’ in response to a fellow student’s comment that ‘He was pro guns LMFAO’. This was in spite of the fact that Abaraonye had met Kirk in person only a few months previously, shaken his hand, and debated him in the chamber.
Such musteline behaviour tells us that this is not a man of strong character, but more objectionable still are his attempts at back-pedalling. Abaraonye might at least have acknowledged that it was a hot-headed moment in which he was childishly attempting to be edgy for his friends. But unable to muster the courage to take responsibility for his own words, he instead attempted to blame the victim, saying that his reaction was ‘shaped by the context of Mr Kirk’s own rhetoric’ and ‘My words were no less insensitive than his – arguably less so’.
More here: The Oxford Union won’t miss George Abaraonye. “When Abaraonye debated Kirk, Kirk had been civil with him. Abaraonye had perhaps been less so with Kirk. He showed up in sweatpants and slippers, tetchily engaged with his opponent, before sauntering away from the exchange while yawning. That his fellow students could have watched this display and still voted for him as union president a month later is baffling. The Oxford Union will survive this controversy, just as it has survived countless others. What will be harder to recover is its reputation as a training ground for bright young minds, rather than a platform for mean-spirited provocateurs.”