It was WRONG to ban Julien Blanc from the UK.

I am disappointed that the controversial  American ‘Dating Coach’ Julien Blanc has been banned from visiting the United Kingdom. Like many, I find his well-publicised  views  to be deeply sexist, racist and homophobic. Indeed, as a father to two daughters, I find much of what this man stands for to be odious and deplorable.

However, simply ‘banning’ those with whose opinions ‘we don’t agree’ is reactive, self-defeating and frankly un-British. By upholding the principle of Free Speech, allowing him to speak and taking him to task, we could have shown the world just what a horrid little man he is and how unacceptable his opinions are.

Instead, the media storm whipped up around this case will attract thousands of impressionable young men to Julien Blanc via the internet, where his vile opinions will not only go unchallenged, but will be applauded and amplified by misguided individuals on accompanying forum and spread via Social Media.

Consider the brave step taken by the BBC in 2009 to invite BNP Leader Nick Griffin onto the panel of the political debating show ‘Question Time’. When subjected to the scrutiny of the programme’s panel  and the fair-minded public audience, Mr Griffin’s prejudiced opinions and far-left* hyperbole fell to pieces. Indeed, the man himself visibly ‘fell to pieces’, marking the beginning of the very welcome and rapid decline of both his awful party and his own political career.

Julien Blanc was not banned from entering the United Kingdom because he had committed a crime – he was banned for expressing an opinion. An interesting comparison exists with those Extremist Preachers in our country, who espouse the subjugation of women and hatred and violence to all Britons on a daily basis. Should they not be deported under the same principle?

Unfortunately the Home Office ‘bowed to the mob’ and banned Julien Blanc, rather than upholding our British Values and allowing him to be ‘bought to book’ by the public. This is indicative of a dangerous rise in Left Wing Authoritarianism that seeks to silence debate of anything that does not fit its very narrow agenda. Free Speech is not only vital for bringing about change, it is also a weapon against evil and we must be unequivocal in its defence.

*Yes, the BNP is a LEFT-WING party; it favours nationalistion, protectionism,  statism and redistribuition. The painting of anything remotely politically undesirable by the media as being ‘Far Right’ is yet another manifestation of the Cultural Marxism that blights Free Speech in our country.

Stuart Hutton.

UKIP Crewe and Nantwich.