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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 10 2010 09:28 | LAST UPDATED Feb 10 2010 09:28 |
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An angry man threw a boot at former Australian prime minister John Howard during a debate at Britain's Cambridge University, the quick-thinking student who caught the shoe said on Thursday. Andrew Chapman, a senior officer at the Cambridge Union Society that organised the debate, told Agence France-Presse how he stepped in to stop the boot thrown by an Australian man who had earlier branded Howard a "racist". Howard "took it amazingly well -- he just brushed off the incident", according to the 20-year-old politics student and keen cricketer. In the debate last Friday, Chapman had introduced Howard ahead of his speech on "leadership in the new century" but was heckled by a man shouting "go home, racist" to the former premier. When Howard got up to speak, the man repeated this, shouting: "You make me ashamed to be Australian. Go home, racist." A short while later, Chapman said, "he reached down to his foot, and I knew what was going to happen. I stood up, and got in between Mr. Howard and this gentleman. He threw this boot and I caught it." The man, whose identity remains unknown, was escorted out of the building by university security. He later returned to retrieve his boot, but "we politely turned down this request", Chapman said. The student said the incident, witnessed by about 300 to 400 people at the event, was "hugely regrettable" given the number of high-profile figures asked to speak. "It's not unusual for there to be a lively atmosphere in the chamber and there to be occasional outbursts," Chapman said, but added that such an outburst was a "completely isolated" incident.  CONTINUES BELOW Asked about his lightning reflexes honed on the cricket pitch, he added: "There wasn't a large amount going through my head at the time, other than that we had invited John Howard, he was our guest, and we have to protect him." Howard, who led Australia's conservative government between 1996 and 2007, joked afterwards that Chapman "must be a cricketer". -- AFP TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
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Paul Aarden on November 6, 2009, 8:49 pm
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Unfortunately this tendency to have those folk don't agree with not be allowed any voice appears to be well on its way to being institutionalised in the UK. Whether or not one likes Howard he has a right to be heard and methinks the Cambridge hosts know what they're doing, unlike the wannabe "shoe bomber," it's not like he is George Bush in Iraq - eish, arme ou Ozzie expats...