[Update] BNP on Question Time this week

[SB_07]

Did anyone watch 'BNP wives' on sky 3 earlier? Bunch of ignorant lunatics, all of them.

[SMG]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

I genuinely, and regrettably, consider this to have been a major win for Griffin & the BNP.

The other panellists were lack lustre, unconvincing (given most of their backgrounds) and clearly - for the greater part - engaging in what they thought was populist electioneering.

Cue the BNP vote increase.

Well Mr A, I dont think you & I have ever agreed......until now.

Jack Straw opened the "Discussion" (& I say that in jest, "Witch hunt" is nearer the mark), with a bow shot across Griffins ship. Griffin replied with a beauty, perhaps the Quote of the show. "My Father served in the RAF during the war, your Father was in prison for refusing to fight against Hitler". Straw later poured fuel onto his own fire by admitting his Great Grandmother was jewish.

The audience I saw was not a true representation of the people in this country, not unless the population is 40% coloured. It seemed Griffin was outgunned, by not only the audience, the panelists, but also by the presenter, who appeared to round on him every chance he got.

The truth did eventually emerge when the question was posed, If Labour have done a good job with immigration, over the last 12 years, why have one million people voted BNP? I did, a couple of times find myself nodding at Griffins answers. I want Bogus Asylum seekers, immigrant criminals & other undesirable foreigners deporting, I certainly want benefits to be stopped to these people.

Griffin is definatly not leadership material, he showed his lack of professionalism & did quite a bit of squirming & back pedaling, but Straw was shaking with rage when he spoke. A definate win for Griffin there. Overall, it showed the BNP are not ready to be a credible party, but it also showed that many people are turning to them simply because they are dissatisfied with the Lab / Con artists.

I would like to see another Question time with Griffin, this one appeared to have been "Staged" to show him up.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by downquark1

Serious debate? When has question time ever been a serious debate? It's just cheap point scoring.

Absolutely and tonight was far, far worse than ever, what a complete let down and I actually think Nicky boy came out of it quite well, ok he was clearly a nervous wreck making his big time tv debut (sure they'll hope it was nerves because if not he is hopeless, I could have answered his holocaust and KKK questions better) and made himself look very foolish a couple of times but on the whole I bet they are grateful the political lightweights that made up the rest of the panel were so desperate to prove they were anti racist by scoring cheap points they didn't bother to go after the BNP organisation and it's policies. I wonder why it was when the subject of civil partnership came up the conservative Muslim lady wasn't questioned? Bullying has never gone down well in this country and I can see the BNP getting an upsurge of support over the next couple of weeks, similar to the conference bounce mainstream parties used to get before the expences fiasco.

One last thing, I heard Nicky getting interviewed after the programme and he was asked if he shook everyones hand as per show protocol, he said why would I want to shake Jack Straw's hand its got blood all over it, shame he never said that during Question Time imo.

[Ramrod]

I thought this comment on the Times website puts it rather well:

David Dimbleby's orchestration of “The Nick Griffin Show� was deplorable. He did not encourage a scintilla of debate throughout the whole programme; instead relying on a tirade of abuse from the crowd baying like starving wolves held back from a carcass.
I find most of the BNP’s policies highly distasteful but last night’s display was even more distasteful. Dimbleby did not encourage discussion of any of the real issues but simply relied upon bear baiting to give his programme a ratings boost.
The BBC should be ashamed.

[Raistlin]

This is a reminder that excessive use of 'bad' language is against the Terms of Use for the Forum. The swear filter is there as a tool to help the Team, not as a safety net to protect the other Members against the profanities of the few.

---------- Post added at 07:10 ---------- Previous post was at 07:09 ----------

I'll add to the above that by 'quoting' passages with that sort of language in them you're not making the Team's job any easier.

Nick Griffin chocked on his own words. It's fun to see people defending him and saying it was unfair when all he was asked was to explain himself. As for the audence, people needed to accept that most people are offended and sickened by his views.

I mean that in a real way. Not something I say in theory.

[Pierre]

Where was the discussion about the Royal Mail Strike, MP's rebuking having to pay back expenses? etc.

This was not a debate and quite frankly a farce. If you are going to get someone like the BNP on, and let's face it we know what their policies on immigration et al are all about, we should be hearing if they have anything credible to say about other issues. It is only by pressing them on other issues that the public will see they are onetrick ponies.

A shot in the foot by the BBC.

[Raistlin]

Agreed.

The BBC really screwed this up - there was a real opportunity here for the BBC, for the other political parties, and for the general public, unfortunately the BBC failed to exploit it.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Where was the discussion about the Royal Mail Strike, MP's rebuking having to pay back expenses? etc.

This was not a debate and quite frankly a farce. If you are going to get someone like the BNP on, and let's face it we know what their policies on immigration et al are all about, we should be hearing if they have anything credible to say about other issues. It is only by pressing them on other issues that the public will see they are onetrick ponies.

A shot in the foot by the BBC.

They should have asked about the strikes. Certainly. The Immigration question was more an attack on Straw than the BNP, it was only after when he was questioned some members of the audience about ethnicity that it went back to the Griffin squirm show. The problem is that he is not often, if ever, in a format where his views are challenged and he has too answer it rather than deflect or blame political correctness for any opposition.

It was clear last night that he is a racist, and a nasty piece of work. I would have liked them not to ask about Churchill and instead the Black Solider who won the Victoria Cross(?) whom the BNP accused of being a beneficiary of a PC-State. That they only gave him the award because he was black.

He also didn't answer why one of the senior figures in the BNP though Churchill was a traitor for fighting the Nazi's.

I mean people have a point about freedom and speech. I certainly agree. I am getting tired of the BNP saying things like they did last night, chumming it up with the KKK, wishing a ethnically white Britain and people are more concerned that the BNP got a 'hard time'.

[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'?

[punky]

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'?

And I did laugh about how after Straw went on about people fighting the Nazis Griffin said his dad fought against them in the RAF and Straw's dad went to jail for being a conscientious objector.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by SB_07

Did anyone watch 'BNP wives' on sky 3 earlier? Bunch of ignorant lunatics, all of them.

Was that like "Readers Wives"?

[Russ]

Originally Posted by punky

Who said one statement?

You wouldn't charge your mind regardless what said. What was the point in watching it? Is there really nothing more productive you could have done?

Is it really that hard to understand? If Griffin had openly admitted the racial basis of his party and not come out with such crap as the guy from the KKK being and "almost entirely non-violent man" then I'd least respect for his convictions of belief. But How many time was he asked if he was a holocaust denier? I counted 4 times and when finally pushed all he said was he's "changed his mind" because of apparently "intercepted radio signals" by the British army, never mind the mountains of other evidence having been available for years.

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by punky

ICorrection a small smattering of applause and cheers from a couple of women when he criticised women's rights under Islam.

and which is representative (if not overly representative) of their support in the country as a whole. Isn't that the point of shows like this? If half of the audience were British Nazi Party supporters and the other half not, wouldn't that have been biased ?

[Mr Angry]

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.