Nick Griffin, that is, the leader of the BNP.
What an utterly pointless exercise this was.
This programme was a farce, an utter farce.
I am no fan of the British National Party. My fiancée is Asian, and I used to be so far left that I nearly voted for the Socialists.
But putting Nick Griffin in the figurative stocks and pounding him with sponges (well, questions) is going to achieve absolutely nothing. In fact, it's counter-productive.
Nick Griffin is a politician, and like any politician he will bend the truth and he will answer questions indirectly. These are two things it would appear that he did frequently on Question Time, but they're also things that other people on the same programme seem to have been doing, for as long as it has existed.
Making Griffin a target for a crowd of people is not only exactly what he wants, seeing as you attract attention to him, but it makes him sympathetic. This is the last thing we want to do if we want to stop him from gaining even more power by the next general election.
There have been discussions on the uni campus before about how if there's an association of BNP supporting students, they shouldn't be allowed to meet together in a uni building.
Of course they should be allowed, they have the right to have those viewpoints, as reprehensible as so many of us find it.
But the stupidest thing is, putting him on the programme with such a wide audience gives Griffin the opportunity to actually make some decent points.
The Qu'ran really does say some of that awful stuff in it. The Bible says some equally ridiculous stuff in it too, such as that when a woman is on her period she should stay indoors and sit on a silk pillow, not allowed to touch anyone or anything.
The BNP shouldn't be given this kind of platform. But they have the right to it. And if they didn't have that right, we'd live in far worse a country than we do right now.
A member of the Welsh Parliament (or a Welsh member of Parliament, I forget which) described this programme as an early Christmas present for the BNP, and that's just what it is.
The MP mentioned at the end of the post is Peter Hain, Welsh Secretary; and I think he may right in some respects.
ReplyDeleteThe YouGov polls in yesterday's Indepedent suggests this, that said, from word of mouth, seeing Griffin on QT has just cemented their views that he is a slimy bigot that has no place in our parliament.
I disagree with you Gareth. I think the BNP have some very clever tactics that make people sympathetic to their party and Question Time completely knocked those all down and exposed Nick Griffin for what he is: Delluded and flawed. The only thing that upsets me is that I know the people that watched Question Time are the people who already know the BNP's game, and the people that get sucked in to Nick Griffin's views probably weren't.
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