Roger Davies

Jack Straw and Nick Griffin

When Nick Griffin appeared on Question Time on Thursday night, it became painfully clear the BBC and (more specifically) David Dimbleby had made a huge mistake. No, believe it or not they were quite right to feature Nick Griffin as a panellist – they only delivered what the majority of the public wanted. To do otherwise would be to cave in to state-controlled censorship which would be healthy for nobody.

However, for any kind of debate to take place, their must exist a two-way dialogue. Ideas must be exchanged, counter-points raised and evidence presented on both sides to cut through the beef of the argument and allow the viewer to arrive at a conclusion. This was the usual format of Question Time. However, the BBC conspiracy that took place on Thursday the 24th of October fell woefully short of this. They bullied and harassed Nick, firing barrage after barrage of questions at him, allowing him to address less than 1 in 10 of all statements fired at him.

He was allowed to speak around three times in total, quite different treatment than any other politician had received previously. This was no meaningful debate, but a verbal firing squad. ‘Sure’ you might say: ‘We treated Nick Griffin quite differently because he is unlike any other politician that had been invited on the show previously’, but by admission of a secret political agenda for inviting him, not only do you rob the show of any power to genuinely expose Nick and his views, you will also force more moderate people to see the BNP as victims of an unfair system.

Nick was very evasive, contradicting himself and giving some rather odd answers on a few occasions.  I couldn’t help but feel, that they should have given him more rope with which to hang himself.  I was also a little disappointed in Jack Straws performance, not only did he come across as weak, but he refused to accept that Britain had any kind of immigration problem. The immigration battle-cry is one that has won the BNP significant political ground in recent times, and it’s denial is likely to invite further progress by the BNP – at the cost of Labour votes.

I suppose I write this to help the reader see that the extreme-left are the ones actually responsible for facilitating the BNP’s rise to mainstream politics. The demonstrations we saw outside the BBC buildings represent left-wing extremists forcing their views upon other citizens, telling them what they can or cannot watch. Perhaps ironically, they become the very fascism they claim to fight.  In doing so, they will alienate themselves from the moderates of Britain and risk further promoting the BNP as a mainstream political party.  Ultimately, it was the viewer to whom the greatest disservice was delivered.  Nick Griffin now calls for it to be done again, what will your next moves be?