The BNP on Question Time - My Thoughts

Being a busy father, the 10:35 slot for Question Time last night was a little too late for me to watch live. I recorded it on my Sky box and have just finished watching it now. Overall, my impressions have not changed significantly from those I formulated while scanning the papers and web this morning.

In my opinion, the biggest loser of the night was actually Jack Straw, who came across inarticulate and evasive, as well as mindlessly optimistic about the damage that the exposure would deal to the BNP. The panel and audience were so combative and aggressive towards Nick Griffin that I think there will be a real sympathetic feeling amongst many people who feel politically marginalised – the impression was very condescending and dismissive, an elite made up of the intelligentsia picking on the common man who only got a 2:2 in his undergraduate history degree.

The big winner for me though was Baroness Warsi, who came across professional, articulate and more grounded and realistic than anyone else on the panel – the Tory party have selected their Shadow Communities Minister well with her. American Bonnie Greer is bright and also very articulate, but was so patronising and condescending in her Afro-centric view of evolution and history and dismissive of Griffin’s efforts to define what an indigenous British person was that she would have alienated more people than she persuaded. I guess I am not immune to xenophobia in wondering what on earth an African-American playwright is doing as deputy head of the British Museum? Seems a bizarre fit for that role, but I can’t deny that she is scary bright and knows her stuff.

With regards Nick Griffin himself, I think he was flustered and did not come over very confident – which may have actually been his plan. He has come out of this a man victimised by the panel, harassed by the audience, persecuted by the demonstrators, and today demonised in the print press. What better way for the BNP to drum up sympathy and support from their core support – the white working class who feels politically marginalised and endlessly patronised by multi-culturalist social engineers and the political elite. Griffin’s subsequent formal complain to the BBC as to his treatment on the show seems to bear this evaluation out.

As a personal reaction to what Nick Griffin actually said, I have long been sceptical of the BNP’s new image, as well as aghast at the naivety and foolishness of what they call policy. I do however think that he was right about a couple of things – perhaps more than a couple, especially his explanation for his views on Islam. It is a shame that, as always, the right wing, extreme conservative, perhaps even indigenous/nationalist view point always ends up with such odious people as its advocates, and that those willing to speak out and who attain a public platform to do so align some clear, legitimate view points and concerns (immigration, multiculturalism) with some of the most ridiculous rhetoric and ideas and some of the most disgusting ideas (holocaust denial, David Duke support) imaginable.

The BBC was right to invite Nick Griffin – his party got a million votes in June. However, despite the objectionable views of him and his party, I think that the forum they set up, the demonstrations, the audience attitude, will all contribute to a feeling of sympathy towards the BNP from some quarters and a jump in their membership. I will finish with saying that the controversy over his invitation was extremely hypocritical when you consider that Question Time and the BBC have repeatedly given a forum for the views of the only man more reprehensible in British politics than Nick Griffin, and that is the revolting George Galloway. Think about what is more objectionable and dangerous – an inarticulate racist (Griffin) or a cunning, devious traitorous bastard (Galloway) before getting all irate about the BBC doing this show.