Gay haters banned from the UK

[marshlander]

... I probably would share little of Geert Wilders's politics, but I support his being allowed to come to the UK to show his film and discuss it with members of the House of Lords. But, of course, our PC Home Sec barred him.

I admit I was puzzled by this decision too. Wilders is an elected representative in a neighbouring EU country. Despite his stance on Islamic militants I can't see what was so wrong about members of the upper house trying to get a bit of a grip on what we could be dealing with here. It is decisions like this that show the UK government in poor light. This makes interesting reading Geert Wilders - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Picking one of the other names on the list, Stephen Donald Black, why should he be allowed into the UK? He was the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, a member of the US Nazi Party and was caught red-handed on a boat loaded with ammunition preparing to invade the sovereign island of Dominica, justifying his actions as making up for the failure of the US government to protect US interests!

To put this discussion in a perspective which has been missing till this point
"The United Kingdom Home Office have, from August 2005 to 31 March 2009, excluded 101 individuals from the UK for having "engaged in unacceptable behaviour". Of those, 22 were excluded by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith between 28 October 2008 and 31 March 2009. On 5 May 2009 Jacqui Smith publicly "named and shamed" 16 of those individuals. As well as these individuals, other people are or have previously been banned from or refused entry into the United Kingdom."
(taken from List of individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

I love a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone, but in the main I don't think this is primarily about freedom of speech, although the inclusion of Michael Savage on the list is arguably less well-advised and might make it appear so.