Griffin's Question Time

On 22 October 2009, Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, appeared on Question Time.

I, along with many others in the Nationalist movement, don't like Griffin. He is too ready to sneer at and attack those who don't conform to his particular autocratic brand of Nationalism. Nevertheless, as the representative of a demonised British minority whose thoughts and opinions are routinely kept from the majority, I wished him well.

It was a set-up from start to finish. He was savaged by the rest of the panel and the handpicked audience from start to finish. After the event I did something I never do. I complained.

Here is that letter of complaint:

"Last night I watched the most incredible edition of Question Time I have ever seen. Normally we are treated to important questions of the day but this programme broke the mould. From beginning to end it was one long sneer at the panelist, Nick Griffin.

Apart from Jack Straw being discomfited about immigration at one point, I cannot ever remember a Question Time where the government of the day was let off the hook so lightly. It was as though the three mainstream parties had all agreed beforehand to attack Griffin. Bonny Greer, being a black American, was not, as you might imagine, inclined to assist him in any way.

On the one or two occasions where Griffin was allowed to state his case without being interrupted and insulted, he semed to put his views across with intelligence and clarity. However, as the panel, the audience AND, most disgracefully of all, David Dimbleby, Question Time's supposedly impartial Chairman, didn't seem the least bit interested in allowing this to happen, we didn't hear him address anywhere near as many of the accusatory questions that were put to him as I would have liked.

I applaud the BBC for giving the BNP the chance to be heard. I condemn the BBC utterly for allowing Question Time to be reduced to the level of a sacrificial hare being pursued by hundreds of slavering hounds out for the kill.

I can assure Jack Straw, Sayeeda Warsi and Chris Huhne that the distinctly un-British bullying that the British people witnessed last night will have done them or their parties no good at all. The true Brit prefers a well mannered and fair-minded underdog to a rude and snarling establishment bully.

Nick Griffin was surrounded by so much unpleasantness last night (echoed this morning in the press) that I believe a great many people, out of sympathy alone, will listen a lot more closely to what the BNP is saying in the future. Even if they are inclined to disagree with the general message.

It will serve the political mainstream right if they are punished for this unedifying display come the next election.

As for the 'Smash the BNP' folk in the street outside, well, the BNP may not be everybody's cup of tea but, despite what the media and the politicians keep on saying about them, can anyone out there show me a photograph of a BNP man carrying a banner that ever suggested that anything be smashed?

I speak as someone who has NEVER been a member of any political party. If the political elite can upset a man like me so much, I cannot imagine what those who voted for the BNP in the European elections must be thinking.

The BBC must NOT be allowed to broadcast this level of partizan tomfoolery on a supposedly impartial (that's a laugh!) political programme again."

The BNP bombed in the 2010, General Election. This was due, I'm sure, not to the usual negative to non-existent media coverage, but to Griffin ridding the party of its best activists. Two years on he's still in place and the party is still in a pathetic state. To be be perfectly frank, given that he is primarily responsible for this, I could care less about Griffin the man getting done over by the Question Time attack dogs. However, that British Nationalism's top man should have to suffer as he did is another thing entirely.

At one point during the programme, Jack Straw, a man who, as Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Lord Chancellor during the Blair/Brown years, exercised power over the rest of us at the political pinnacle for thirteen long years, said this:

"I come from immigrant stock... I'm third generation Jewish."

Which statement, if you really known your stuff, speak volumes.