IS it right to have BNP on Question Time?
No: Martin Miller, chair of Manchester City Hope not Hate
THE fierce debate about Nick Griffin's appearance on BBC's Question Time has focussed on "freedom of speech" arguments. The line goes "The BNP is a political party and we might not like what they say but they have a right to say it. Democratic scrutiny of their ideas must be upheld."
I would accept that argument if their real views were to be truly scrutinised on Question Time. However, we know from Griffin himself that this is not going to happen.
The BNP has set out to normalise its message. In 2000, Griffin explained to the `American Friends of the BNP' (including David Duke, leader of the Ku Klux Klan) "The BNP isn't about selling out its ideas, but we are determined to sell them,"
He continued that the basic ideas of the BNP had not changed, but he did want to soften its language and image.
He went on: "Once we're in a position where we control the British broadcasting media, then perhaps one day the British people might change their mind and say, `yes, every last one must go'… So instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity."
So Nick Griffin himself has revealed the problem. The BNP remain a racist and extremist party but hide their vile views behind a marketing image.
Will rigorous debate on Question Time get behind the image to expose the truth?
I fear rather, that it will just be a platform for Griffin to further pursue his strategy of making the BNP seem mainstream.
There is of course a great irony in Griffin's current appeal to democratic values. This after all, is the man who once declared "When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate."
Rational debate can take place when parties of different views accept normal democratic values. The BNP does not.
It spreads a subtle message of hate about members of our communities and it would deny rights to millions of our fellow citizens. To give them a platform is a distortion of democracy.
It is best put very simply, as the former head of the army, General Sir Mike Jackson, has just done: "These people are beyond the pale."
Yes: M.E.N. columnist Angela Epstein
A FEW years ago, on a trip to Poland, I found myself standing in front of the watch tower at Auschwitz, trying to take in the enormity of the industrialised murder that had been carried out decades before in the name of racial purity.
I saw the nail marks on the walls of the gas chambers where desperate inmates clawed for life before death overtook them. I saw the piles of human hair, the mass of spectacles and tiny baby clothes that form part of the world`s most harrowing museum.
And yet even after witnessing all this, even after listening to the traumatic testimony of survivors and even though I know Nick Griffin denies the Holocaust claiming "that the extermination tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie and latter witch-hysteria", I still feel the BNP leader should be allowed to appear on Question Time.
And I hope every Jew, black, Asian and other member of an ethnic minority will understand why I feel this way about a self-confessed racist, homophobe and anti-semite.
Let's set aside the free speech argument, or the fact that, lamentably, his party is a legal player in Britain's political system. Being on Quuestion Time will give us a chance to see Griffin for what he really is.
The BNP leader is a wily creature who has tried to give his party's thuggist bigotry an emulsion of acceptability by dumping the skinheads and replacing them with suave suits and slick soundbites.
He also realises that much of what he says speaks to the heart of ordinary white people in this country. Issues such as the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, the supposed influx of asylum seekers and perceived lack of jobs due to mass immigration are concerns - particularly since these issues are side- stepped by the main parties. Putting the British back into Britain sounds like a reasonable and powerful message.
But the delusion has to stop. Backing the BNP comes at a price and we need to rip away their doily-thin veneer to see that what lies beneath is a mandate mired in hard-core prejudice and racism.
Only by putting the reviled Griffin up there, amidst a potentially hostile panel and hopefully confrontational audience, will this be possible.
Let's hope they tear through his slick image and challenge him about which bits of Mein Kampf and Nazi ideology he particularly admires (which he has professed to do), his views on euthanasia, repatriation of ethnic minorities, the Ku Klux Klan and - my favourite - how he would feel if his son brought home a nice black or Jewish girl. Rather than lending his band of rabid fascists legitimacy, I hope Griffin will be steamrollered into revealing his true colours.
And that, Nick, really is as simple as black and white.
Opinion: BNP on Question Time
October 22, 2009
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Good luck tonight nick.
Martin MIller, all party leaders dissemble. PMQ's is a fine example, where Gordon Brown has yet to give a straight answer, and on QT very few party members have actually been straight up lest they upset the applecart.
Continuing to ignore the BNP has led to them gaining two MEP seats, it's obviously not working to reduce their popularity in percentage terms.
And like it or not, they are a valid political party, and the BBC's impartiality means they ought to be represented at some point. What the BBC needed to do, yet haven't, was to include a well known, non-white, British born and intelligent personality to wipe the floor with him.
Instead they went for some barely known American-born playwright. Well done BBC!
I agreed with the ex-woman MP on the telly today. She said that the appearance was a chance to showcase their views without having to justify them. Correct. Just like Labour, Conservatives Greens etc do every week
What the government is really frightened of is that many of their so called 'working class' supporters will see a party on telly saying what they say to each other in hushed tones. It will give respectability to racism. We need to face up to the fact that we haven't beaten racism, we've just driven it underground and this may be it's opportunity to re-emerge. It's a good test of a mature democracy - sadly we haven't got one thanks to years of Tony Rule (yes Tony not Tory)
At the end of the day he represents a political party people have voted for, so he is entitled to appear.
Let him on and see how he answers to proper questions, such as defence, NHS, national debt.Should be fun watching him squirm.
I think he should be allowed on, to further make a complete and utter fool of himself. Im looking forward to it
the thuggish behaviour of our current fascist labour government are far worse than the bnp.
forcing us all into debt, funding the lazy and allowing almost everyone into the country to drain even more off us.
yet they think thats fine and we'll just accept it. well we dont.
at least with the bnp they say it straight and tell it how it really is.
tiggerluc, somewhere in shaw
" ... defence, NHS, national debt" I think the government mouth-piece would find even more to squirm about on those topics.
I can't wait to see Jack Straw's performance. He's a right stuttering, umming and arring kinda fella. Should be a fantastic programme but I have a sneeky feeling it won't be aired. Watch this space.
fande koi
Who? Jack Straw.
Martin Miller: 'There is of course a great irony in Griffin's current appeal to democratic values. This after all, is the man who once declared "When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate."'
The further irony is that Labour have proven him correct. Through progressively suppressing desent, treating the police as a private militia to be used to initmidate protestors or even monitor opposition politicians and generally destroying most of our civil liberties, Labour has tacitly agreed with Nick Griffin's belief that force is the way to power.
'Rational debate can take place when parties of different views accept normal democratic values. The BNP does not.'
But neither does the Labour Party. I believe in seeking rational debate with anybody, but if you don't and you go along with the idea that you only debate with those with normal democratic values, you can't logically deny the BNP a platform to promote their racist communism while the Labour Party are still given a platform to promote their fascism.
Black Flag: must be a bad day for you, we find ourselves singing the same song - though I am sure you'll find some reason to disagree with me.
fande koi
Who? Jack Straw.
Seemingly Ignored, Heald Green
22/10/2009 at 12:13
LOL, actually Jack Straw has gone up in my estimation since hes said he's supporting the idea of perscribing chaotic heroin users diamorphine on perscription.I think hes suddenly found his backbone!
I don't see what the fuss is about - I can't wait to watch Nick Griffin squirming later and exposed for exactly what he and his party are - a bunch of bigoted, racist fools with an illegal constitution. What a shame the BBC didn't have the stomach to have a panel consisting along the lines of Tony Benn / Denis Skinner / William Hague / George Galloway / Vince Cable...?
Nick Griffin should be allowed an equal platform as he is and elected politician. You dont have to agree with him but he has the right to speak.
I squirm every time Blair, Brown and Mandleson blatantly lie on our tv screens, the later not even elected. Would the anti facist brigade and muslim activists rather have politics the Mohammed Karzai way... ie Corrupt ? Freedom of speech and democracy is what we fought 2 world wars for.
The real Jimmy Grimble, Manchester;
You have taken the words from me sir ...I couldn't agree with you more.
Seemingly Ignore - very true about the Goverment. Howevere, it will be interesting to see what Nick says and does when quizzed on his and his partys policies on these topics.
Jimmy: yip, that's right. Nick Nick is no more a bloated bullsh&$$er than most of the politicians we get on - particularly the ones who came on a while ago and convinced us that invading Iraq was for ur own good. Politicians Smoliticians - who needs em.
... and another thing, all these bleeter moaning about giving Nick Nick a platform are the same gobby gang who opposed Sinn Fein being denied a voice on the BBC. But of course, Sinn Fein are communists so that was ok. Lot of hypocrisy being spouted today.
Let him have his platform, he will not give a straight answer anyway if challenged about his rascist views. He is not the first and wont be the last MP to to not give a direct answer to a question, most people see him for what he is anyway - a rascist who hides behind the facade of a poltical party.
Tigerluc - I suggest you read the BNP manifesto. Areas such as defence, the NHS, the economy, law and order are all very well documented and properly thought out. The ONLY reason moderate right thinking people would never vote BNP is the issue of repatriation of all foreigners. (Its not just limited to non-whites)
Where New Labour, the conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and all the other "middle ground parties" have failed miserably, and allowed the rise in popularity of the BNP, is on the race issue.
Until that is tackled head on by the mainstream parties, then the BNP will flourish.
It will hopefully be a calm and thought provoking debate, if it turns into a huge argument, the BNP will have won. Nick Griffin cannot argue succesfully that the repatriation issue within the manifesto is right and appeals to the vast majority of the British electorate. But what he can do is stir up anti foreign feeling on the issue of the economy and the "British Jobs for British Workers" issue, given our current economic climate.
Those out of work will flock to that flag.
And he will argue, sucessfully, that in this country today we accept organisations that will NOT allow white people to join, the Black Police Officer's Association is the most commonly used example. And while the current Parliament allow that to continue, while they allow ethic groups to divide themselves off from the mainstream, they will never be able to kill that particular argument emanating from the BNP
The current Labour Government have shackled the British public, we now cannot make up our own minds over even the slightest thing. We cannot smoke, we will soon be forced to pay a fortune to drink, our children cannot play conkers, we cannot laud competitive sport even though our children are overweight and unfit, so many aspects of our life are now "controlled" by the Government that freedom of expression will soon be a thing of the past.
We will never repair "Broken Britain" without taking responsibility for our actions away from central government and putting it back into our own hands - where it should be.
And if your read the BNP manifesto, they say just that - so be careful Britain or we will have the BNP as the ruling party in this country
The time has come for the immigration debate to be given level playing fields. Its called freedom of speech and democracy. For far to long the liberals with the help of the media have tried to smear anyone who dare voice there concerns about immigration as a racist. Even this paper in its opinion as a yes and no has bottled it. All I ask for is an honest debate so I am free to make up my own mind.
What a joke, we all know that the only reason BBC have invited Griffin is to boost their ratings for question time, he’s nothing more than a gimmick. They couldn’t care less about giving the smaller parties a fair voice.
The reason for a lot of this hot air is to do with marginally seat by all parties. Today we live in a failed political system. Nulabor policy was to have mass immigration for cheap labour. In return for the pensions bubble problem. We now have ghettos of low income families and poor immigration areas currently and possible more for the future. Nulabor idea is to control population by poverty. If Nick Griffin is wise he should hold a mirror to these failed MPs. Then we as a populus can see how fooled we've been. The real question should be directed at your local MPs in their failure.
... and another thing, watch the TV coverage of the so called anti-fascist, benefits-subsidised, communists protestors outside the BBC. They will provide the perfect match for the BNP bootboys. Extremists are all as bad as each other.
@Bertie McGrew
I really hope it's more than the racist agenda that keeps people from voting for them, after all every authoritarian government with large socialist overtones has either failed badly, persecuted and imprisoned large portions of their countrymen or adopted murderous policies.
I know Labours watered down education, but hopefully not to the point people think following failed economic policy constitutes a good idea.