News - The BBC are facing criticism today after inviting The British Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin onto it's show 'Question Time' last night, on which Griffin described homosexuality as "creepy", could not admit that the Holocaust ever happened, and said that Islam was not compatible with life in Britain.
The show almost became a showcase for Griffin and his party to justify themselves. All of the topics discussed were those targetted towards the BNP, such as race, sexuality, and ethnic cleansing. While his reactions and responses were more than questionable, had the programmes covered regular topics, Griffin would have shown his true colours. Whereas now, the BBC have allowed him to claim that he was a victim of a 'lynch mob'.
Nick Griffin has thanked the BBC for the exposure, claiming that it would propel the BNP "into the big time". MP Diane Abbott says, "The programme has given him unnecessary exposure, unnecessary credibility, and giving more credibility to a fascist party in the middle of a recession is a very dangerous thing."
The BBC however were able to congratulate themselves, winning 8 million viewers, instead of their regular 2 million viewers, almost pushing their weekly flagship ratings show Strictly Come dancing out of the limelight. BBC Deputy director general Mark Byford has defended the decision to invite Griffin. He said the BNP's Euro vote meant the BBC had to include the BNP because of its "responsibility of due impartiality". In a statement issue today, he says: "Over eight million people watched Question Time last night. This very large audience clearly demonstrates the public's interest in seeing elected politicians being scrutinised by the public themselves."
Former Mayor of London Ken Livingston told BBC Radio 4 that the "BBC will bear moral responsibility" if anyone was hurt as a result of the decision to invite Griffin on to the show. He also said that he felt that the BBC had "lost its moral compass". Prime Minister Gordon Brown however has supported the BBC: ''I believe we have got a duty to expose the BNP for what are racist and sectarian politics,'' he told Real radio in Yorkshire. ''Anyone who listens to what they're really about will find that what they're saying is unacceptable.''
During the show, the self confessed "most loathed man in Britain" BNP leader fidgeted and fumbled, and was unable to explain why he had previously claimed that the Holocaust never happened, only able to smile and say, ''I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial.'' He also caused outrage by defending the leader of America's Ku Klux Klan fascists, whom he has met in person.
Griffin then described British people who descended from the original inhabitants as "aborigines" who faced "genocide". He defended his use of Sir Winston Churchill on BNP literature on the basis that his father had fought in World War II. Griffin then attacked fellow panellist Justice Secretary Jack Straw, whose father was a conscientious objector. He said: "My dad was in the RAF during the Second World War - Jack Straw's was in prison." Then he claimed that Churchill would have been a member of the BNP and was ''Islamophobic'' by ''today's standard''.
Griffin also criticised the mixed race culture of London: "London is no longer a city my grandparents would recognise. It is changed beyond all recognition. Many of the ancestral Londoners have left over the last 20 years because they can no longer call it home."
London Mayor Boris Johnson has since replied: "Nick Griffin is right to say London is not his city. "London is a welcoming, tolerant, cosmopolitan capital which thrives on its diversity."
Earlier this week, Griffin told The Times that he sees US President Barack Obama as an ''Afrocentric racist bigot'', and demands that US blacks should be resettled in Africa ''because the two peoples living side by side would cause problems forever.''
Then came the issue of homosexuality. "I'm against the teaching of homosexuality to primary school children, I'm against teaching any sex to children," Griffin said. "A lot of people find the sight of two men kissing in public a bit creepy. I understand that homosexuals don't understand that, but that is how a lot of us feel. A lot of Christians feel that way. I took a party that said that homosexuality should be outlawed, militant homosexuals don't have the right to teach it."
Matthew Todd, Editor of 'Attitude', told The Sun: "No sane person could hear his views and think they'd want this person running our schools, our hospitals, our kids' lives."
Perhaps when Griffin referred to "the sight of two men kissing in public a bit creepy", he was thinking of a more personal situation, after telling The Times that former National Front leader Martin Webster had in the past offered him sex and had described Griffin as his "bit on the side" for several years.
Regarding the publication of Jan Moir's article about Stephen Gately, Griffin said: "Freedom of the press is the foundation stone of our democratic system, so the Mail can publish it if it wants. But I personally believe that in the case of someone like Stephen Gately who's died - the old maxim 'say nothing if not good. So, I think it was wrong."
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Sunday 25 October
By paul green
I am not a BNP supporter but after watching question time, i am very worried the support they may get now, i was so looking forward to that program but it was ruined by abuse out side & inside that studio, 1000 outside 2 of which were arrested, 1oo% of the ordiance & the whole pannel were attacking nick griffin in every way they could, they looked angry where nick was either smileing or ralaxed, the press say he looked nervouse but what do you exspect with that lot in your face,
Any way all his statements are right, Gays & lesbians, immigration, crime, english culture in schools & he wanted the word english put back on applications rather than white caccaisian.
Dam right his right, all our laws are upside down, everythink that should be right is wrong,
If labour & conservative's don't change this country in all thoes area's above then we will be heading down a sad violent road, where we are on our way there now sadly enough.
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Monday 26 October
By Mike
Nick griffin appeals to people just like you, one thing I would do if I got into power is force people like you to learn how to write and spell PROPER ENGLISH! You moan on and on, and yet you can't even write and spell basic ENGLISH. What a sad person you are, and so deluded politically.
Monday 26 October
By paul green
Mike,i might not be able to spell but atleast i can read, not like you, if you read what i said properly i stated that i am not a BNP supporter, but the way that program went was not what i was hoping for,i was hoping that the questions they asked were more to do with his policies rather than his past & a proper audiance of normal people from the general puplic, that way we can see where the major parties are going wrong, but if we ignore the general public, then theres cause for concern!
Atleast i don't judge/insult people like you have done to me, while i was sharing my point of view
Sunday 01 November
By Eugene
The most important thing to remember is that the British right-wing establishment does not trust the British people. Which is why they were suspicious of the democratically-elected leader of a fascist party appearing on television. Neither do they trust the British people to elect their own head of state as they do in many other countries. The British people are not grown up enough to make those decisions:- they might elect neo-nazis, or they might vote in an idiot like Bush as a president. Griffin and his ilk reflect an inability by the main political parties to deal with problems that worry people, and until they do deal with those worries, the neo-nazis will flourish. Griffin had a perfect right to appear on television, and the British people are intelligent enough to reject him outright as a fascist bigot. One day too, we will be able vote for our own head of state as a meritocracy - not as subjects in a fiefdom of the house of Windsor.
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Monday 23 November
By Roderick Stanyer
Our heartiest congratulations Mr Griffin, for having the guts to say what most of the decent folk in the christian world think but don't dare say. We in Australia are well on the way of handing our country over to the Moslems and the boat people and anyone else who likes to set up an enclave in our midst. Our Prime minister is a weak insipid fool who is more interested in being Mr Nice Guy than looking after the true Aussie. We badly need someone like you to put this country back to how it was before all the immigrants took it down to the garbage level of the countries they left. Keep up the great work, you have a hell of a lot of admirers in Australia. Sincerely yours Rod Stanyer, retired Mech Engineer.
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