Daryl Scatcherd shows his true colours

Lancaster UAF | Thursday, 1 November 2007 | Click here for original article

Daryl Scatcherd on the (very far) right

Daryl Scatcherd, the President of the Exeter University Debating Society has shown his true colours at last. Since we printed an article on his attempts to invite the BNP to speak on campus, we've been following the story with great interest and, with the help of a few of our friends, have managed to dig up a few interesting tidbits.

Scatcherd has been desperate to get the BNP on campus for a while now but in numerous emails to people enquiring about the debate and asking if the BNP had in fact been invited, he has repeatedly stated that there were never plans to invite anyone from the party. However, an email released to us states clearly that an invitation was intended then withdrawn to Danny Lake, the Head of the Young BNP and a student at Bath University.

Back in late 2006, Scatcherd wrote to Exeposé, the Student's Union magazine, 'I am not a supporter of the BNP and fully dismiss their irrational racist claims...'

Using the BNP's usual line of left-wing bias whenever they are denied a voice to spread their racism, he continues, 'Our university allows the existence of societies covering the left wing and liberalism such as Socialist Soc; however refuses right wing groups to exist or talk on the campus. Why? I am assuming it is because liberal and socialist organisations have soft ideas such as Human Rights and abolition of exploitation which are seen as 'just' and 'moral'.' Probably, but as reasons go, that's not too bad.

It's interesting to see that Scatcherd regards human rights as being 'soft', particularly when you see him in his SS uniform and you consider his desperation to get the BNP to infest the Exeter University campus, this coming very conveniently at a time when the BNP is stepping up its campaigning in the area.

In any case, Scatcherd gives the game away slightly when he writes to one of his correspondents, 'We are hosting a debate with the motion "this house believes the bnp should have the right to express their views on university campuses" and we have asked Unite Against Fascism to come and make a case against members of the debating society of whom believe freedom of speech should be absolute in a tolerant and free society such as ours.'

Clearly Scatcherd isn't studying English but when you have that sentence reassembled to make it coherent, it states that the debating society believes in what it calls absolute freedom of speech, which we can take to mean that it wants the BNP on campus. It isn't likely to get what it wants and in any case, the BNP is hardly a suitable component part of any discussion around free speech, not when it denies its own party members free speech whenever it suits the party hierarchy to do so and denies a similar right to those who oppose its current political message.