Forum Topic

BNP on Question Time next week

Nick Griffin to be a guest on Question Time on 22nd Oct. Is this a good idea?

Vivienne James ● 5664d10 Comments

He was trying to say that the European Law prevented him from making his points - obvious bo**ocks.Wasn't the best line of the night when Jack Straw turned him (only slightly pompously) and said "I am the Justice Secretary and I can assure you , there will be no European prosecution for anything you say on the Holocaust" or words ot that effect. Pricelss!

Sara Nathan ● 5636d

I was a bit confused when he said that he could not explain why he had said certain things, I think he was referring to holocaust comments.  Did he say something about European Law banning him from explaining this? Would have been better if he had said "I was wrong".And as you say when they kept commenting on about the Ice Age I thought maybe I had dozed off and accidently turned over to an Attenborough programme!

Carol Burge ● 5657d

Firstly I thought Griffin was very poor. Admittedly he was facing a hostile audience, panel and a chairman whose father was on hand for the liberation of Belsen and couldn't conceal his contempt but Griffen couldn't handle the pressure. He was tactically inept and failed to direct the discussion in any way favourably to himself. He actually seemed to believe if he said palatable things the rest of the panel might like him.Baroness Warsi was very effective, Jack Straw was solid after a nervous start and landed the most effective punches but Bonnie Greer was disappointing. Her research seemed to have been mainly to look at the historical section of the BNP web site so discussion ended up getting side tracked on discussions about the ice age. Chris Huhne was embarrassingly anodyne although to be fair to him the discussion never really got onto the economic impact of immigration where he would have been strong. The programme lost momentum at about half way with Griffin taking such a battering that it had stopped being sporting and the debate tended to become uninteresting.

Andy Jones ● 5657d

Well looking at the news coverage of the "storming" of Television Centre it appeared to me the majority of the people doing the pushing were people with cameras!  Would it be wrong of me to think they were journalists out to make a story????  Also did anybody else watch QT?  What did you make of it?

Carol Burge ● 5657d

Just watching the BBC's coverage of the protests outside its own building it struck me that the people demonstrating are universally white. Are they operating a colour bar?

Andy Jones ● 5658d

Absolutely he should be on. The views of his party should be subject to the closest possible scrutiny and hopefully exposed for the ill-informed rabble rousing that they are.The thing that needs to be considered really carefully is the quality of the panel he is up against. It would be wrong to underestimate Griffin who is an articulate Cambridge graduate and will be at pains to present himself as moderate and reasonable. He will be able to do this if the other panelists are not well briefed and mouth platitudes and make unsubstantiated allegations against him.The BNPs only political strength is that they do ask questions which from their perspective undoubtedly have the motivation of stirring up racial hatred but nevertheless do raise important issues. Take the matter of social housing for instance. The BNP allege that most of our housing stock is being taken up by recently arrived immigrants at the expense of the indigenous white population. The Government counters with statistics that they say is not true but a quick walk through the South Acton estate would demonstrate to anybody that the Government are not being entirely honest on the matter.The panel has been named as Jack Straw, Baroness Warsi, Chris Huhne and Bonnie Greer. I think the first two are canny and heavyweight enough to know the best way to deal with Griffin. I worry that Chris Huhne will over-intellectualise things and only win the argument from the perspective of those with an IQ of over 120. I like Bonnie Greer but I'm concerned that she will come across as a PC obsessed liberal confirming the suspicions of many voters that the BNP are targetting.

Andy Jones ● 5660d

They are a legally constituted political party in the UK.Therefore, they are entitled to a say.This is not to say that I agree with them, but stopping them makes them martyrs, which is a bad thing.

John Bellringer ● 5661d

You might not fancy UKIP much either - but they also have European seats and appear on Question Time.If I was editor, I'd just record it a bit earlier - say at 1700 rather than the usual 2000 and everyone would have wrapped and gone by the time the protesters really got going.Alternatively, tell everyone it's at TVC and then record it at Elstree.

Sara Nathan ● 5664d

That was my view initially and now I am confused. Are these various groups as bad then??Judging by the sly determined look on the face of a campaigner collecting petition signatures near SH B Market one Saturday, her mention of their intention to protest outside the BBC and inside (insinuating some access to the programme, but maybe wishful thinking) made me wonder what will come to pass next week. I do think that having Nick Griffin on the programme will start to give the party an air of false "respectability" gradually, and for those of us plebs who are not in the media or politics and can only try to make of the BNP what we read and hear, it's a tricky one.

Vivienne James ● 5664d

Personally I don't have a problem with him appearing, after all it is a free country and everybody is entitled to their views as long as they are expressed in a non-confrontational manner.  Unfortunately though I suspect the appearance, if it does indeed go ahead, is going to give various groups a reason to descend on Television Centre/Wood Lane and that I don't think will remain non-confrontational!

Carol Burge ● 5664d