The ex-Prime Minister of Australia John Howard had a Doc Martin thrown at him during his speech at the Cambridge Union. The shoe was thrown by an angry audience member, accompanied by the cry of “racist”. Reports of the student’s protest have been overshadowed by general embarrassment amongst Cambridge students with his rather pathetic aim. Another cringeworthy moment came later when the student decided to return to the Union to ask for his boot back. Further evidence, as if Oxford needed it, that Tabs can’t throw.
Further controversy at the Union this week involved a Labour MP guest speaker turning on a student in what has been described as an inappropriate attack. Denis MacShane MP, participating in a debate on the Middle East, was midway through a speech on the value of an Israeli’s life, when a student of Egyptian origin made a point of information asking, “What about an Arab’s life?” MacShane turned on the student, pointing at him and saying “Your Arab life’s worth as much as Jew’s life… You are not a Hamas representative.” When later asked to apologise, he told the student he wouldn’t “until you stand up and apologise to every Jew killed by Hamas in Palestine.” QC Michel Massih, who spoke afterwards, recommended to the student, “I tell you, seek a lawyer my friend.”
