Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramrod
He made a very good point when he pointed out that no one would dare ask a Maori or an American Indian 'what do you mean by indiginous ethnic'?  |
Agreed.
He actually made several good points and, considering the degree of personal animosity and vitriol directed at him, handled the entire situation rather well given his lack of experience in that type of environment.
Moreover, at times he made Straw et al look like delusional paranoics pandering to a populist agenda. He had them trying, desperately, to appear more "right on" than any of them could ever legitimately claim to be.
Ultimately a complete failure for anyone who thought that this would "expose" the BNP. What happened in actual fact was that the so called politicians and social commentators failed. Career self preservation took precedence over what could have been a very healthy debate.
Nick Griffin was not exposed as the semi literate halfwit many, myself included, had hoped he would be. He was presented with a challenge and he rose to it. Distasteful and fanciful as many of his policies - past and present - may be he managed to come across as a victim of a "holier than thou" collective of parliamentary parrots who refuse to acknowledge their own shortcomings and the part which they each played in adding to the recent groundswell of support for Griffin and his ilk.
I was particularly impressed with his explanation of how his opinion on the holocaust had changed. His reply showed all the skills of a carefully choreographed debate waiting to happen. I very much doubt that any of the more astute politicians around today will be wanting to revisit his explanation.
I suspect now that this has passed that there are a lot more people minded to vote BNP and certainly a lot more people prepared to voice their support for some elements / rationale of their policies.
The fact that the nations capital could only muster 5-600 protesters shows the level of disdain the public have for politicians and their lies.
As I said earlier above - people (especially politicians) are not taking him and the threat of his increased popularity seriously enough.