Freya Bromley is a student at Durham University, and a HuffPo contributor. She was most helpful in sorting out the arrangements for last Friday’s debate at Durham University. She’s just published a piece on the debate:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/freya-bromley/feminism-debate_b_4666788.html

Her piece is predictably feminist-friendly, it has to be said, and my own view of the event is very different. I was delighted by the rapt attention given to my arguments and Swayne O’Pie’s by the overwhelming majority of the capacity audience (300 people, mainly students). We were originally told to expect a demonstration outside the debate venue by members of the Durham University Feminist Society – presumably referred to as ‘duffers’ – but were reliably informed the demonstration had been called off because… er… it was raining lightly.

The J4MB supporters at the event were pleased at the talks given by Swayne O’Pie and myself, and the audience’s response to them. We always knew we couldn’t possibly win the vote – the audience mostly consisted of women, some angry gender feminists among them – but the support we did get for the motion was well in excess of what we’d anticipated. We also met plenty of students after the debate – both men and women – who were highly supportive.

Being pushed for time, I’ve limited the comments I’ve posted in response to Freya’s piece to the following, which has already been published. The ‘Justice for Women’ URL I refer to is http://www.justiceforwomen.org.uk:

Freya, thanks for this, and for arranging a very interesting evening. My thanks too, to all the people Swayne and I met afterwards.

I’m very pushed for time, but just want to raise one issue. The last URL in your piece takes people to the ‘Justice for Women’ website which I claimed in my talk had the strapline, ‘Men, women and murder’. Ms Bindel shouted, ‘Lie!’ or ‘Liar!’, and later said to me this wasn’t the organisation she co-founded, and that there were a number of organisations with the same name in the UK. We’ve been unable to find any. Would you please be so good as to ask Ms Bindel for the URL of the organisation she’s referring to, or a retraction of the allegation that I lied? Thank you.