BNP Leader Nick Griffin’s Question Time Review, With Jan Moir, David Letterman And All The Views
DID BNP leader Nick Griffin do it on Question Time? Did Nick Griffin do what everyone who sat up to watch political chatter over tractor racing, repeats of Coronation Street and strippers get what they hoped for? Did he tick the boxes? Let’s take a look:
Sky News: “Disgusting’ Griffin Defends Ku Klux Klan”
Far-right BNP leader Nick Griffin has defended the Ku Klux Klan, attacked Muslims and called gay couples “creepy” in a controversial appearance on BBC’s Question Time.
Were it not for the KKK, Griffin could pass for a tabloid hack voicing off. “JAN MOIR FOR LEADER!”, “BUY THE DAILY EXPRESS!” come the cries from the BNP voting households. Can Griffin recover?
At one point moderator David Dimbleby snapped at the BNP leader for smiling as he struggled to answer a question about his past denial of the Holocaust. He was booed as he attacked Jack Straw’s father for being in jail for not fighting in the war while his own father was serving in the RAF.
Smirking… Snide comments about MPs…We stayed awake for this?
Sky’s chief political correspondent Jon Craig said: “Griffin was exposed on Question Time as a nasty piece of work, with unpleasant views on race, immigration, Islam, homosexuality and Winston Churchill.”
BNP leader is unpleasant… We needed to watch him to know this?
Those front pages:
“Griffin uses BBC to attack Islam and defend the Klux Klux Klan” – Daily Telegraph
“As protestors bay outside, Griffin says “I’m not a Nazi’” – Guardian
“Hostile reception for Griffin” – The Times
“BIGOT AT BAY - Jeered, scorned and ridiculed…but still BNP leader milks his moment in the spotlight. Now the BBC faces angry questions of its own” ” – Daily Mail
“Griffin baptism of fire at the BBC” – Indy
“BNP leader Nick Griffin is… A DISGRACE TO HUMANITY” – Daily Express
“RAT RUN – BNP chief scuttles away after humiliation on TV” – Daily Mirror
“BNP CHIEF IS A NUTTER… even wife puts boot in” – Daily Star
The Show Without Punch
The Guardian: “BNP on Question Time: Lone voice freezes Griffin’s grin”
Nick Griffin was not sitting on the far right of the panel. But if that would have been a cliche too far for Question Time’s producers, Mentorn, there was symbolism enough as the four men and two women took their seats for last night’s recording.
Faced with the BNP, all three mainstream parties, in what had doubtless been the subject of some negotiation by the programme’s producers, were seated squarely to the left of the long, curved desk, with David Dimbleby in the centre acting as a reassuring buffer against any anticipated xenophobic spittle.
Bonnie Greer alone, unelected and hence beyond contamination, sat next to Griffin, though with her elbow nearest to him planted firmly on the desk throughout, one shoulder directed in sniffy contempt.
And her eyebrows ready to fire at will.
The Times: “Audience is outraged as Griffin says Churchill would have joined BNP”
The British National Party’s exposure to a nationwide audience provoked outrage last night as its leader reiterated his claim that Winston Churchill would have joined his party.
And Churchill would have served diligently under leader Nick Griffin. Right, nick? Far right!
BBC: “Griffin attacks Islam on BBC show”
His references to Britain’s “indigenous people” prompted other members of the panel to challenge him to say he meant white people. Mr Griffin said the colour was “irrelevant” and said Mr Straw would not dare go to New Zealand and tell a Maori he was not “indigenous”. “We are the aborigines here,” he claimed
At least he’s doing jokes now.
THIS Is Staffs: “Mixed blessings in TV’s big time”
“The vast majority of this audience finds what you stand for disgusting,” one man told him. “You’d be surprised how many people would have a whip round to buy you a ticket to the South Pole,” said another. “It’s a colourless landscape and it’d suit you fine.”
The Times:
The redoubtable American playwright Bonnie Greer, who refused to look his way, started him off by referencing the new law that would require the BNP to admit non-whites to its membership. “You laugh,” said Ms Greer. “If I was you, I would be scared.” The vision of the policy U-turns a mass influx of Muslims would cause, was such a good joke Mr Griffin even applauded.
She wasn’t joking. If every non-white, Jews, Muslims, Hindu and more join the BNP, the BNP would die.
The Sun: “I’m the most loathed man in Britain”
SMUG bigot Nick Griffin appeared on BBC1’s Question Time last night - after sparking mayhem at Television Centre. At one point the fascist BNP leader, 50, confessed he was “the most loathed man in Britain” among Nazi sympathisers.
The Opinions
Daily Mail, Max Hastings: “Repugnant, slippery and exposed as an empty vessel”
Anyone think Hasting is giogn to talk about the war?
Greer said that Churchill’s mother was possibly of Mohawk Indian descent, which made nonsense of the BNP’s ideas on British racial identity. As a history lesson, almost all the panel talked tosh. Winston Churchill, in his own time, possessed the values and racial attitudes of the Victorian aristocracy from which he came, wildly politically incorrect in modern terms.
The Guardian, Aditya Chakrabortty: “Nick Griffin on Question Time: No big gaffes, so he will say it’s a success”
Griffin’s success last night can be defined as follows: neither cabinet ministers nor protesters stopped him from getting on air and there were no punch-ups nor any telltale flashes of temper. For the BNP, those are sufficient grounds to chalk up last night as a victory.
The Sun: “Sun panel gives its verdict on BNP leader”
Matthew Todd, editor of gay mag Attitude, says… Saira Khan, of TV’s Apprentice, says….
You need to know what the gay man and the Asian woman think of Nick Griffin?
FT, Matthew Engel: “’Billy Bunter’ is wounded in bear-bait
This was not Question Time , it was a bear-bait, with Nick Griffin as the animal supposedly undergoing torment. This was the only way the BBC could square its decision to invite him with the bien-pensant view that he should never have been allowed. It would have been far better if he were just allowed to rabbit on until even the most alienated builder in Burnley realises that Mr Griffin is unimaginably stupid. Last night’s performance may have created some kind of sympathy for him….
The Times, Andrew Billen: “Question Time, BBC 1”
Maybe Mr Griffin couldn’t find a gag writer, or maybe he thought by looking serious and speaking slowly he would be taken seriously. But this tactic was soon in trouble and, suddenly, after 10 minutes he went as giggly as a sixth former…
There was so much ganging up, I was half-reminded of barmy David Icke’s sorry appearance years ago on Wogan in which he elaborated his sci-fi conspiracy theories. It is not easy — it even requires courage — to say the unsayable even when the unsayable is plain wrong. Unfortunately, Mr Griffin — evasive, hair-splitting, his every other answer further proof of bad faith — turned out to be unspeakable. Sympathy for the devil? I think not.
Anyone else on the show?
The representative of what’s left of New Labour was Jack Straw, striking absurd Churchillian poses, who was his usual evasive old-line political self. He was outshone by the Tory communities’ spokesman Sayeeda Warsi. But Mr Griffin was the most incoherent and unconvincing.
CRIKEY, Alex Mitchell: “BBC’s Question Time gets Nicked with a reborn Alf Garnett”
Instead, Question Time presented the British public with a reborn Alf Garnett with none of the comic satire of Warren Mitchell…His presentation is so lightweight it’s difficult to see him emerging as the leader of a major neo-Nazi force, which is what the political hysterics are predicting.
The Times, Libby Purves: “‘All of the panel wanted to attack a man who wanted to be attacked’
It was an odd show because almost all of the questions — even the five minutes on gays — were BNP-related, and the entire audience and panel anti-Griffin. Dimbleby, briefed to keep quoting his YouTube nonsenses back at him, risked making him seem a victim. Griffin’s tactic was to grin pudgily and to keep his answers crisper than Jack Straw’s (not difficult). It is never easy for a chairman to come down hard on someone who keeps it brief.
The Times, Matthews Parris:
Nobody crashed. Nobody descended into incoherence. All of them — landed with the task of attacking a man who wanted to be attacked — found their own distinct way of doing battle. But nobody dared try what, if it could have been done, would have been the most devastating tactic of all, and perhaps the only tactic that would have done Mr Griffin any real harm: to brush him aside as a small man, enlarged by the anger of his enemies.
The Times, David Aaronovitch
Griffinism is a state of permanent denial, followed by self-incrimination and wild eccentricity…
Tested on his penchant for Holocaust denial he became a Holocaust-denial-denyer, replying “I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial” and telling the nation how he couldn’t explain how and in what way he had changed his mind on the Holocaust as he might be prosecuted in France.
On Islam he slipped in a reference to supporting Israel on Gaza, which was unlikely to win the Jewish vote and likely to baffle the BNP vote.
Finally he confided that he thought the BBC to be “part of a thoroughly unpleasant ultra-leftist establishment”, when voters know it best for Strictly Come Dancing. He showed himself to be, not so much a fearful Nazi, as kook.
Late Show With David Letterman Amy Poehler; Nick Griffin; Judy Collins performs. 11:35 p.m. KCBS
His Last Word
The Herald: “BNP leader laps up the publicity but wilts in Question Time heat”
Reviewing his own performance he said: “People will see the extraordinary hostility shown to me from the people representing the three old parties. It’s still a matter of the main political parties being against the outsider and that is what it is about.”
The Last Word
Radio Netherlands: Giving the far right rope to hang itself
It’s a risk. As soon as you promote extreme attitudes you create more attention for those views. Professor Groebel says the media also plays its part, being more interested in risky, thrilling stories than moderate ones. On the other hand, he says, to suppress them completely is dangerous because you then have a movement that you cannot control publicly. In the end, people have to be trusted to weigh up their politicians, says Mr Groebel. “A strong democracy does not necessarily have to fear more extreme views if they are placed in context and surrounded by good moderation.”
The Mail: “Talk about bare-faced hypocrisy.”
Normal service has been resumed, the Mail is attacking the BBC:
Amidst the furore over the BBC’s decision to invite Nick Griffin on to Question Time, its director general, Mark Thompson, claims that he had no choice because of the Corporation’s ‘central principle of political impartiality’. What a pity that the BBC for years has comprehensively trampled this so-called ‘central principle’ into the dirt. This is an organisation that’s utterly in thrall to the left-wing agenda of the majority of its staff.
Nick Griffin - an unlikely man who would never get anywhere in a major political party gets a lot of attention…
Posted: 23rd, October 2009 | In: Key Posts, Politicians Comments (27) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
October 27th, 2009 at 7:36 am
I see pies. Lots of them
October 27th, 2009 at 2:51 am
I look at this man’s face and I study it very carefully, his eyes and his expression, it makes me feel very uncomfortable. History never forgets a face.
This has nothing to do with how a person may look but everything to do with what you see in the face. I think we have right to be concerned.
October 24th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Having watched the show again on Iplayer I was even more disgusted than the first time. I have started a petition here:-
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/give-nick-griffin-mep-a-fair-hearing.html#
October 24th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I watched question time and found it a very disapointing programme,I am no racist at all, but On one of the comments made by nick griffin is right. The government need to send all the illegal immigrants back, all the asylem seekers that are exploiting the system, the government needs to wake up and listen to the british public, the majority of people arnt racists at all, but are fed up with this governments Idea of been Multi cultral, we live in a society now were the british people tolerate the people in this country and live together , But what really gets me is when then councils and government turn round and come up with the ideas of banning certain things in case it offends Muslims, that is what angers me , this is our country and every one who comes here should abide our way of life as we would if we lived in there country. I dont agree with the burkas they should be banned altogether, I refuse to take my hood off when walking in public places because if they can walk around freely then so can I.when asked to do so I explain its my culture,and ask whats the differance,you will find there is no answer, I am am no racist at all, but I am British and I have my right to my opinions wether people feel offended or not, this is what I call a debate.If the government listened then there would be no BNP, People used there vote to protest and now look what has happend , They dont like it ,so now they are slating off the BNP.for what they stand for, and now all they have done is promote this party, and if they carry on the BNP will only get stronger and stronger,
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Here’s one for the conspiracy theorists out there: will British Muslims consider Nick Griffin “The Dajjal”? Not that I believe in that stuff, but I find it interesting Muslim eschatology claims that their Antichrist, the guy who will cause them all loads of misery in “the last days”, has “a wheaten complexion” and “is one-eyed”. (“I have told you so much about the Dajjal (Anti-Christ) that I am afraid you may not understand. The Anti-Christ is short, hen-toed, woolly-haired, one-eyed, an eye-sightless. Dajjal will be a powerful personality in this world. He will attract loads of people; his voice will be heard in the East and the West. ) That’s, um… pretty specific in my book. He also has “a following of women”, and I must admit I’m surprised to see so many British women supporting this guy.
The Muslim “Antichrist” is also said to originate on an island.
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Karen - Enjoy this Greer moment of luvvy-ness:
http://www.anorak.co.uk/228537/politicians/hugs-and-shakes-before-nick-griffins-question-time-wobble.html
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Agree 100% Karen….on both your points!
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Sarah, those are Griffin’s/BNP five views you posted and obviously espouse also? Keep the UK a Christian Country. Keep the Muslim immigrants out of the UK and rid the UK of those who are there. Stop the Muslims from bringing their families back to the UK. You must strongly believe in the BNP and all it stands for and espouses and would be the best Party for the UK?
History always has a way of repeating. May I inquire where you propose to build the camps and crematoriums in the UK?
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Bonnie Greer cool? She’s a boring old snob (if she wasn’t they wouldn’t let her on Newsnight Review).
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Badly handled. Presumably Dimbleby is permitted to get away with murder as the Chair only because he is his father’s son. He was a disgrace, as was Bonnie Greer in belittling Griffin’s education (class of degree).
Warsi was consistently good, but Straw and Huhne were OK too, apart from Straw’s pathetic attempts to dodge the questions on immigration.
Griffin is trying to portray himself as a decent, rational politician when, in reality, he is a dangerous and uncouth racist. However, last night could well make a martyr of him. Dimbleby and Greer should not have descended to Griffin’s level (eg his snide reference to Straw’s father having been a conscientious objector). There was no need. He couldn’t fail to have proved the despicable, ignorant and stupid nature of his views every time he opened his mouth, even if he’d been treated in a civilised manner; which he wasn’t.
Shame on you David Dimbleby. It’s one thing to have decided to expose this man, and the BNP, for what they really are; quite another to act as the leader of a lynch mob. (And your father would never have done such a thing.)
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:50 pm
There is only one race, Nickie boy, the human race. And, get this and catch up- when you go into meditation, just pause and watch yourself think- that awareness is the same one, yup, in everybody. Look at the whole person sometime, not just his skin color or his individual sexuality- humans can be kind or cruel, smart or stupid, beautiful or ugly,peaceful or angry ,loving or hating,tolerant or not, tall short fat skinny whatever whatever-but as a whole person-you stand, hmmmmmm, not so high yet, but keep trying, you can catch up, it’ a choice.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:40 pm
David Webster - the vast majority of British people, although concerned about immigration levels, are most definitely not saying or thinking those things in private - the British electorate in general is not - mercifully - that extreme.
unfortunately Griffin fools many people - including yourself - into thinking that stopping a few people (preferably non-caucasian of course) coming and settling in Britain is what the BNP is all about….
it isn’t - it is a miserable, dark and evil ideology, which if put into practice, would set this country back hundreds of years and cause misery for thousands of innocent people.
Griffin did his level best last night to try and put himself forward as Nice not Nazi, but it didn’t work - he can’t take back the things that he has said (which are extremely offensive to most people) and he is exposed by the sort of company he keeps - the KKK in America is a good example. Griffin can try and distance himself from that, but it has been said that the KKK has raised funds in the past for the BNP - is Griffin now biting the hand that feeds…? I think not….
those who vote for the BNP are voting for extremists, there is no doubt about that and, while they are politically entitled to do so, should think very carefully and look beneath the veneer of the BNP to the venom beneath before making a final decision to go down that route… for all our sakes….
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:25 pm
I didn’t see the advert but I saw someone else had posted.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I do appear to be don’t I. Mods have removed the two adverts for that little teashop in Brighton. The one with huge portions
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Yampy, are you talking to yourself?
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Bonnie Greer:’ I wanted to slap him’..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html
Nice one Bonnie , why don’t you just show yourself to be an ignorant nobody with violent thoughts…why don’t you join the BNP?
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Tsk! Another pointer to your tea shop. Don’t you get enough free publicity from ‘Brighton Beach Patrol’? I also want to know if those wedges of cake you served last week were your usual posrtions or were they cut for the cameras?
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I felt so sorry for Nick Griffin who didn’t stand a chance on last nights show, his comments (when allowed to speak) hit home with I’m sure alot of people who live in the real world. I haven’t bought a paper today as all the front pages are slating him will their media brainwashing. One comment he made about if he saw to guys kissing in public he would find creepy, the media have twisted round to say he said gay people were creepy, twisting things round and insulting the intelligence of the british public. The BNP can count on my vote for the next elections.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Well I think the panel needed to be discusted with them selves, they treated Nick Griffin no more than an animal. This is the state of our country…what happened to free speech, flogged drawn and quartered.
Nick Griffin does have some valued points
1. Britian turning into a muslim state….we can never let that happen
2. Immagration….we have let all the rubbish into the country who are feeding and thriving off our state…send them home and refuse entry.
3. Muslims marry out of the country, bring them home and mulitply by the 10s, because they wont intergrate with our society and culture, they hate all what we stand for…..this needs to be stoppped. Im sure their a minority that dont stand for this, but they will only be in the monorities.
4. Keep Britian a christian country, if you dont like our culture or our society, what are you doing here.
5. The indgious people of the Uk no longer have rights and our freedom of speech is being taken away, while other race and cultures are free to air their views.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I’m certainly not a fan of the BNP or its leader, but last nights QT was a dismal failure in portraying democracy and tolerance, but also I don’t feel that Nick Griffin will win much support anyway.
The Chair needed to be impartial, and it wasn’t, and until it can be the Beeb will boob in allowing such a pantomime any airtime
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I am far from being a fan from the BNP but this was supposed to be an impartial television show, with an impartial host, in a democratic nation. The other panelists seemed unwilling to accept the BNP was part of this democracy, the elections will show them how unpopular they are. Dimbleby was not impartial and should not have hosted the show if he was unable to control his anti-BNP views. Finally, it should have been called Rant Time not Question Time last night, as the majority of ‘questions’ were people releasing their frustration on Nick Griffin, if you think he is so wrong, ask him a genuine question and his answer will be proove his nature.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
We’ll see what the ‘vast majority’ of British people think of the BNP in next year’s General Election. I bet it’s ‘not much’.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Nick Griffin (the BNP leader) won’t be appearing on the Late Show With David Letterman. It’s Nick Griffin (the US comedian) who will be appearing. Do some research Anorak News, please! http://nickgriffin.net/
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:46 am
As someone that wants no truck with the BNP and would wish that they did not exist I have to say that I was disgusted at last nights QT. I have never been present at a public flogging or hanging but this came very close. What happened to impartiality? While every person on the panel seemed to have briefing papers on what to ask, what sins to bring up it made one wonder of the other members of the panel had been tipped off as to the questions that the ’starters’ were going to ask. Why was there no discussion of the postal strike, the MP’s expenses, the was in Afghanistan? There was only one subject up for the audience and the panel to pillory and that was Nick Griffin!
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:16 am
The whole show was farsical a hand picked audience of middle class educated individuals and panel with the sole intention of shooting Nick Griffin down, to say he was isolated would be putting it mildly.Someone cheered when Griffin made one of his comments and you could see members of the audience “reaching for there knives” I can see why people vote for the BNP and I will be doing so, Immigration is the problem and the BNP is saying in Public what the vast majority of British people regardless of there ethnic origins are saying in private
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 am
I loved the look on Jack Straw’s face when Nick Griffin mentioned about his father not fighting in the war! Rather worryingly, from the few bits I saw (I did actually fall asleep!) I don’t think Mr Griffin came across too badly. The panel and Mr Dimbleby did their best to discredit him but failed, in my opinion.
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:28 am
What a strange show! It was like a Pantomime. If I had been in the audience I would have shouted out “He’s behind you!”. Except, whilst, Griffin was the nominated hate figure there were other villians present. Jack Straw, with the blood of Iraqis on his hands and his attempts to block expense investigations. Chris Huhne with his seven houses and his trouser press charged to the public. Baroness Warsi, the failed Tory candidate in Dewsbury who was ushered into the House of Lords and then the Shadow Cabinet. I wouldn’t have booed Bonnie Greer, she was cool.