Controversy descended on Broad Street last week, as a leading anarchist campaigner’s speech was cancelled amid security concerns raised by Thames Valley Police.
Ian Bone, a prominent anarchist blogger and founder of the far left party ‘Class War’, was invited to speak by the Left Caucus at Balliol. He had planned to discuss the view that, ‘The greatest contribution we could make to equality in this country would be to burn down Oxford University’.
However, preparations for the event were interrupted when the police sent a letter to the Left Caucus and the college authorities warning about the security risks. The talk was cancelled as a consequence.
Thames Valley Police claimed that they would have to administer appropriate security for such an event and the bill for this would fall on either the college or the Left Caucus. They claimed that the expenses would be in the thousands rather than the hundreds, and could feasibly extend to ten thousand pounds. Balliol were unwilling to pay such a fee and the Left Caucus did not possess sufficient funds.
Restrictions had already been made by the college on the nature of the talk. In order to limit any potential for trouble, the Dean of Balliol had ordered that the event was only to be open to University members who had acquired a ticket beforehand and that it was not to extend beyond half past seven or exceed the hour it had been granted.
Questions have subsequently been raised over the legitimacy of the police’s fears, and Ian Bone has been outspoken on the matter. He told Cherwell the tactics of Thames Valley Police were “fucking diabolical… cunning and underhanded.”
Bone stressed the fact that he was willing to comply with all of the restrictions that Balliol had imposed upon the talk, and intimated that the police had acted in a coercive and persecutory manner. He has now resolved to deliver the same speech next on 1st May, outside Balliol, and protected by the right to protest.
Bone said that he thought the police were exaggerating the potential danger. Whilst controversial movements on the far-right – such as EDL marches – often cause great public expense, Bone insisted that an hour-long indoor discussion wasn’t even remotely comparable.
Claudia Blake, President of the Left Caucas at Balliol, chimed with Bone’s sentiments and expressed doubt over the security costs requested by the police. She called the ten thousand pound figure “ridiculously high” and said, “I don’t know where the figure came from – they were pretty vague about it but said it could cost that much.”
Ms. Blake expanded upon this statement and articulated concerns over the political implications of the police’s involvement. He commented, “I think there is a problem here regarding both freedom of speech and freedom of association. The police have the power to decide if an event “needs” policing (and they did not feel they had to justify this decision to me), and also, it seems, the power to name an arbitrarily high price.
“Together, these two powers mean that they can effectively prohibit events like this, which means that any even slightly controversial speakers can be prevented from putting their views across.”
Thames Valley Police have released a statement regarding the reason for their estimations. It read, “Thames Valley Police risk assesses any event using a standard procedure which takes into account a number of factors. This is a standard practice – unless there is an agreed level of police deployment available we are unable to accurately quote a figure.”
Balliol JCR President, Alex Bartram, who was working in tandem with the Left Caucus to facilitate the speech, has stressed that the college authorities are not at fault and said that Balliol were very accommodating throughout the process.
However, Bartram also alluded to the police’s unshifting stance on the matter. He said, “Once the police were involved, there was little that I could do, but I tried it: we argued every which way that the event was highly unlikely to pose any sort of security risk, that the comparisons being drawn with previous sit-in protests by Ian Bone were not accurate, that comparisons being drawn with Tommy Robinson at the Union were off the mark too, that very few people would actually care about the speech other than those interested in hearing Ian Bone voice his opinions.”
Bartram also noted that he was ultimately unqualified to challenge the police authoritatively on the matter.
