Was Kelis right about British racism?

Things are not "disgusting" in Britain, as the American singer Kelis
pronounced this week, but we do seem to be moving towards a new normal

Racism in Britain is not 'disgusting' as the singer Kelis proclaimed this week, but for the first time in a decade it is on the rise

Let's start with the good stuff. Britain is one of the most liberal, most tolerant countries in the world. Given the challenges it faces from diverse, ever-changing communities in the major conurbations, it manages its affairs with a remarkable degree of harmony. We live, indigenous and non-indigenous, in relative proximity. Generally speaking, we don't much like extremism or extremists. For less good examples, look to bits of Europe that don't cope so well: look at France, look at Germany; look at Italy. No, don't look at Italy – well, not directly. The soul can only take so much horror.

But for all that, something is happening, and it isn't good. We're drifting back. Hard to gauge these things exactly, but look at the web postings, listen to the radio phone-ins, read the newspapers, cup an ear outside a playground. Talk to young black men or Muslims about their recent experiences with the police; go to Dale Farm and talk to the Travellers facing eviction; witness how sexual attention towards women frequently escalates into aggression and obscenities when young men are rebuffed.

Things are not "disgusting", as the American singer Kelis pronounced this week, but we do seem to be moving towards a new normal. Britain feels that bit harsher, a little bit meaner, less considerate; indeed, the opposite of everything the prime minister promises in his "big society". The inevitable consequence, you say, of a society facing unemployment, contraction, scarcity and recession. Perhaps. But I don't think we are here by accident. This is a course that was set.

A remarkable thing happened in 1999 in the aftermath of the death of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence. Pretty much against the advice of Tony Blair, Jack Straw set up the Macpherson inquiry. It was a judicial investigation that prodded and probed the workings of the Metropolitan police; but more importantly it also had a hard look at our institutions.

As it pulled away at the many layers, we saw we had become accustomed to levels of discriminatory behaviour that did us no credit. The police, as always, took the first hit, but their failings were merely the failings of our society in microcosm: the racism, the sexism; the distaste for, and often hostility to, difference; the arrogance that characterised encounters between those in the majority endowed with authority, and those of a different race and gender and social background who had none.

Macpherson made us look again at it all. And we were the better for it. But we didn't all feel better. Sections of the police hated Macpherson because they lost the ability to offend who they pleased, to stop who they wanted, and had to talk to the minorities they felt they should have been policing. By the time the ripples spread to the NHS, the civil service and private firms terrified of being exposed for being out of step in terms of equalities, Macpherson gained more enemies. Those who have power don't surrender it easily.

The "ludicrous Macpherson report of 1999", wrote Peter Hitchens in one of his many assaults. A "sub-marxist analysis of the institutions of contemporary Britain", railed the Express's Leo McKinstry. It's all a "McCarthyite witch hunt spawned by Stephen's death", said the Mail's Richard Littlejohn. Yes, it spawned "a kind of McCarthyism," added his colleague Melanie Phillips. We're too politically correct, says the much-quoted Campaign Against Political Correctness. We're wasting money, says the TaxPayers' Alliance. They articulate the backlash.

Over time, the kickback has worked. When it emerges that once again some school pupils, no doubt echoing their parents, throw words such as Jew and gay and Paki and Chink around like so much plasticine, the reaction from the Mail and the Express is to criticise the teachers who make a note of it. When the Dale Farm Travellers say they are being unfairly treated and refuse to move, the Sun suggests the council should "let the locals loose on the site". When community advisers exercise their policing function in Tottenham, as envisaged by Macpherson, and warn tensions are high after the shooting of Mark Duggan, those warnings go unheeded, for once again they are no longer seen as people worth listening to. Next stop, riot shields.

There is no longer political pressure for equality or even civility. This week, the home secretary, Theresa May, who has been ripping up equality regulations as fast as she can find them, trumpeted her decision to walk away from plans to help women rise in industry.

There was a healthier mindset for a decade after Macpherson, but there was never buy-in from the establishment – the politicians, the mandarins and the media moguls – and so those changes were never woven into the fabric. The right huffed and puffed and lobbied about political correctness gone mad. And they got what they wanted. This is the post-Macpherson world they wanted, and it's meaner and harsher and less equitable and more divisive. This is a creature of their design; they may as well celebrate it. And if just occasionally they have to suffer its ill-effects, they really shouldn't complain.

Hugh Muir at Comment is free

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

'£1million bill' for Blackburn protests policing operation

Police contain the EDL protesters in Mincing Lane, Blackburn

Lancashire's biggest-ever policing operation has been hailed a huge success after a mass demonstration by the English Defence League passed without major incident.

Around 2,000 EDL supporters descended on Blackburn from around the country on Saturday while an estimated 500 opposition protesters also gathered. Many town leaders had feared the eruption of widespread violence but only 12 people were arrested across the day.

It is understood that around 1,900 officers from across the North West took part in the operation and MP Jack Straw said the security clampdown would end up costing taxpayers around £1 million.

Mr Straw praised the skill of the police but said many people would be angry that the ‘self-indulgence’ of the EDL would result in such a high cost. Town centre shops also lost trade and Phil Ainsworth, of Blackburn’s Town Centre Partnership, said it had been a ‘disastrous’ retail day.

Eight-foot high steel barriers fenced in the 2,000 EDL demonstrators inside the King George’s Hall section of Northgate.

The only violence during the day was two large brawls, lasting up to 10 minutes, among the EDL protest. Those arrested - the majority of whom were from the EDL side - were questioned for alleged offences including assault, drunk and disorderly, affray and public order. Six of those were from Blackburn and rest from Yorkshire, the Midlands, North East and Bolton.

The counter-demonstration, said to be celebrating Blackburn’s diversity, in Sudell Cross passed without incident, except for concern over groups of youths throwing firecrackers on the floor.

Blackburn’s Mall Shopping Centre remained open from 9am until 5.30pm, with four shops deciding to close and another four closing earlier. While numbers of shoppers were a lot lower than a normal Saturday, there were no incidents inside the centre. Extra security guards and police were deployed throughout the Mall. Blackburn Market opened, but bosses decided to close the facility at 1.50pm amid fears of protesters descending on the area.

Around ninety officers remained on duty in the town centre until 5am, and there was no trouble reported in the evening or through the night.

Successful police tactics included:

• A lead-in operation which saw EDL coaches escorted from the M65.
• ‘Fencing in’ all the access points around the EDL in the Mincing Lane, and Northgate area which kept groups separate.
• Not using any officers in riot gear in a more non-confrontational approach.
• Deciding not to split up the EDL brawls, instead letting the group’s own stewards sort it out.
• Escorting the EDL out of town and holding back counter-demonstrators until they had left.

Chief Superintendent Bob Eastwood said: “Lancashire Constabulary and Blackburn with Darwen Council pulled off a successful operation that passed off relatively peacefully. People were continuing their shopping and we identified a strategy to cause minimum disruption. We had sufficient resources in place because of the obvious threat to community cohesion, and we were able to pull everybody together very well.”

Police said the decision to keep pubs closed until 4pm meant that, when the premises re-opened in time for the Arsenal versus Blackburn Rovers match live on television, the EDL protesters had left town.

Harry Catherall, deputy chief executive of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council said he was pleased with the way the event had been managed. He said: “On the whole, it passed off peacefully. But I do apologise for the inconvenience that has been caused to businesses and residents on this unusual and difficult day.”

Lancashire Telegraph

Thanks to NewsHound and Zaahid for the heads-up

C4 'Come Dine With Me' contestant stood against Jack Straw for BNP

Kicking back with a cold one yesterday to watch his favourite TV show (Come Dine With Me), Jack Straw may have recognised one of the contestants. A star of the East Lancashire edition of the fly-on-the-wall cookery programme, “old-fashioned plumber” Nick Holt is in fact one of the region’s most notorious BNP activists and stood against Straw in the 2005 general election.

Holt is certainly no stranger to Conservatives in the area. CCHQ found itself fire-fighting in 2009 after Local Tories were exposed by the Lancashire Telegraph’s Tom Moseley for approaching the BNP activist to stand for them in council elections. Holt even attended a party planning meeting alongside then Conservative PPC – now MP for Rossendale and Darwen – Jake Berry.


With a menu featuring the suspiciously French-sounding beef bourguignon, Scrapbook assumes Holt did not clear his cuisine with party headquarters prior to broadcast.

Political Scrapbook

Are white girls really 'easy meat'?

Jack Straw, the former Home Secretary, claims that some Pakistani men see young white women as prime targets for sexual grooming. Is he right, asks Andrew Gilligan

If you want an example of the official “conspiracy of silence” that has allegedly allowed hundreds of vulnerable white girls in some towns to be abused by Asian men, the case of Ajmal Mohammed, a 43-year-old from Blackburn, might seem to be it. In 2004, Mohammed, an amateur cricketer in the Ribblesdale league, took a schoolgirl to a Manchester hotel room and got her drunk – to celebrate, he said, her 14th birthday. The child ran away. Police were called, but he denied having sex with her and they issued him with a “child abduction warning letter”. He was never prosecuted.

Two years later, Mohammed took another 14-year-old to a hotel room, this time in Blackpool – and this time he raped her. When the police came for him, they found the numbers of six other vulnerable youngsters on his mobile phone.

In industrial towns across the North and the Midlands, over the past three years, at least 51 people have been convicted in trials involving groups of men who have picked up young girls for sexual exploitation. Forty-eight of the offenders were Asian; the vast majority of the victims were white. Last week, in Derby, nine men, eight of them Asian, were sentenced for their parts in a gang that groomed, sexually exploited and in some cases raped 27 local children, 22 of them white.

The issue exploded on to the national agenda on Friday after Jack Straw, the former Home Secretary who is also MP for Blackburn, said that in his town, some Pakistani men saw white girls as “easy meat”. There was, he said, “a specific problem of Pakistani-heritage men who target vulnerable young white girls, and we need to get the Pakistani community to think much more clearly about why this is going on and about the problems that are leading to a number of Pakistani-heritage men thinking it’s OK to target white girls in this way”.

Many other figures involved in this field have fought shy. Martin Narey, the chief executive of Barnardo’s, initially described the evidence as merely “anecdotal”. A Channel 4 documentary on the subject in 2004 was pulled at the request of police. Few experts were willing to talk openly yesterday.

Yet as early as 2006, Blackburn’s local paper, the Lancashire Telegraph, launched a “Keep Them Safe” campaign to make the authorities tackle what it called “sexual grooming and abduction […] which predominantly involves Asian men”. In article after article, the paper charted locals’ frustration at officialdom’s reluctance to get involved: in 2007, it reported, the parents of some victims even threatened to sue the police for their failure to act. The editor, Kevin Young, said: “This is an extremely sensitive subject, and the Telegraph gave it a lot of consideration before launching its campaign.”

In response, in 2008, Lancashire police and Blackburn social services set up Operation Engage. By March last year, it had offered protection to some 385 girls and young women. Similar operations have sprung up in Preston and other nearby towns. Some schools in East Lancashire now offer their female pupils lessons in “how to spot a sexual groomer”.

There could, of course, hardly be a more emotive story than this. Sexual abuse! White girls! Pakistani men! Politically-correct establishment letting it all happen! No wonder the BNP has been licking its lips (though, unfortunately for them, the only two white Blackburn people recently convicted of this crime, in November 2008, turned out to be members of the party).

Yet just because the BNP exploits an issue, does not mean there is nothing in it. The questions really should be: is it simply a local problem in those towns? What, if any, wider weaknesses does it expose in Britain’s Muslim communities? And what, if any, wider weaknesses does it expose in Britain’s governing class?

Sadly for the racists, the figures just do not support any attempt to paint British Muslims and Asians as sex predators on a national scale. Asians are, in fact, under-represented among sex offenders. As at June 2009, there were 7,021 British men in prison for sex crimes, of whom only 234 were Asian. That is 3.3 per cent, rather less than the proportion of Asians in the population. And a 2008 study by Malcolm Cowburn of Sheffield Hallam University found that jailed sex criminals from ethnic minorities were less likely to have abused children than white sex offenders.

Haras Rafique, of the Centri counter-extremism think tank, says: “There is a problem, a massive problem, but I don’t think it’s confined to Pakistani communities. It only appears to be a bigger problem with immigrants because immigrants are more visible.”

And not just because of their skin colour. Asians do not commit more sex crimes, but they do, perhaps, commit different sorts of sex crimes. White child abusers are more likely to find and groom their victims in private, on the internet. The evidence suggests that Asian abusers are more likely to find and groom their victims in public, on the street.

Straw says young men “fizzing and popping with testosterone” are taking up with white children because “Pakistani-heritage girls are off limits and they are expected to marry a Pakistani girl from Pakistan”. Rafique says the former Home Secretary is living in the 1970s: “These guys are just as happy to groom Asian girls if they can get them,” he says. “It’s just that the parents of Asian girls tend to keep a closer eye on them.” Quite a lot of those convicted are also in their 30s.

One other feature in the abuse must be the view, held by a substantial minority of British Muslims, that the Western lifestyle is immoral or degenerate. Only two weeks ago, the East London Mosque, the largest mosque in Britain’s largest Muslim community, held an event condemning “child-rearing in the Western context” as a “social ill”.

This mosque, and many others, has also hosted events condemning music, immodest dress and the wearing of perfume. A young Muslim man brought up on that sort of diet is less likely to treat a white girl in a short skirt with respect.

But the East London Mosque, and many other such havens of hatred and extremism, was, at least until recently, treated by the white political establishment as a respectable, mainstream institution. And that brings us to the sense of denial by some white liberals, and their refusal to hold Muslims to the standards they expect in others.

Last year, this newspaper told how more than £100,000 of public money was paid to two schools with connections to the racist, extremist group Hizb ut Tahrir – the Muslim equivalent of the BNP. The headmistress of one described English as “the most dangerous subject a school can teach”. If the BNP had been given public money to run schools, it would have been stopped. But the then schools secretary, Ed Balls, defended the payments.

Many other parts of the British state, from Ofsted to the Charity Commission, have been less than willing to confront prima facie evidence of extremism and intolerance, often to the frustration of Muslims themselves. Even last week, one Guardian columnist dismissed the Muslim grooming claims as “part of the ignoble tradition of racialising criminality in this country”.

Even though sex crimes committed by Pakistanis may be no more prevalent than those committed by people of any other race, that still leaves the question of whether those crimes are being less effectively tackled by the authorities. Some might argue that the relative lack of Asian sex offenders in prison reflects the authorities’ relative unwillingness to pursue Asian sex offenders.

Criminologists say that that is probably not the explanation. But as with any offenders of any race, people commit crime more if they think they can get away with it. And in the eyes of many people in East Lancashire, there was, at least until recently, a willingness to let Pakistani offenders get away with it, for fear of being accused of racism. The danger, of course, is that that stokes the very bigotry it seeks to avoid.

The lesson from Blackburn, however, is that if the problem is brought out into the open, it can be addressed. Since the local paper’s campaign, and the establishment of Operation Engage, there have been 63 charges, a number of convictions and, apparently, a deterrent effect: according to Engage’s co-ordinator, 80 per cent of the cases they now deal with (albeit on a broader front than merely street grooming) do not involve Pakistanis.

Last night, in the inevitable political row, some of the usual suspects accused Straw of “stereotyping a whole community”. But this subject does not have to become a racial melodrama; it is, principally, a crime. We can tackle it – but first we have to start talking about it.

Telegraph

2009 in review - Nick Griffin appears on Question Time

Police hold people back outside Television Centre
protesting BNP leader Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time

Baroness Warsi recalls the most controversial TV show of the year

Normally before a television appearance you're all in the same green room and you mingle in the make-up rooms, too, but this time we all had our own rooms and our make-up was done separately. It wouldn't have been fair just to isolate him.

The only time I felt nervous was when I saw the piles of paper Jack [Straw] and Chris [Huhne] had. I felt like a student who hasn't done enough revision for an exam.

David Cameron felt that everything Nick Griffin finds repulsive about today's Britain is embodied in me. I'm a Yorkshire-born, Muslim daughter of hard-working, working-class parents. It was quite a brave decision. It was a high-profile, high-risk programme, politically. Once we got started, I enjoyed it. I find Nick Griffin an unpleasant and manipulative man, and intellectually shallow. He's part of the "anti" brigade. Always anti-someone: first Jews, then Blacks and now Muslims. But I think the BBC should have him on. As long as you're not beyond the pale – violent and beyond rational debate – you should be engaged, and exposed.

I was hoping the programme would follow the usual format, with questions on the economy, the Royal Mail, etc. Instead there was an obsessive concentration on race and what Nick Griffin had said in the past. I would have been intrigued with the BNP's policy on getting Britain out of the economic recession.

Nick Griffin was both extremely nervous and trying extremely hard to please. This was his big chance to seem a nice, reasonable guy. It looked very forced. David Dimbleby pulled him up, asking, "What are you smiling about?" At times it was like a comedy – especially when he talked about "non-violent versions of the Ku Klux Klan".

Later, Jack was waffling on that immigration was not an issue in Britain today. It was a difficult moment because I had to acknowledge that there was an element of legitimacy to what Nick Griffin was saying. I said, "I don't agree with the guy on the end, but you, Jack, aren't being honest on this."

Afterwards, my phone was jammed with texts and I had hundreds of emails. I read each and every one. There were some nasty ones saying, "Go back home," but 95% of them were positive. I also got a lot of emails from British Muslims, saying they were proud to see someone comfortably British and Muslim and able to articulate a sensible view – rather than the hotheads the BBC usually have on.

I don't think the BNP have had a poll boost. The poll questions are couched so wide that almost everyone would fall into them. Academics from the University of Manchester told me if there was a rise it was from about two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half per cent. I've also been told that on fascist and racist websites Griffin has been pilloried: things like: "He was trying so hard to hug the black woman and be nice to the Asian woman." So he's upset his core vote.

I'd happily share a platform with Nick Griffin again, but I'd much rather do it in a format where you can really debate the issues. I wanted to get behind and below the BNP beliefs; Question Time is more about point scoring.

Observer

Boggart of the BNP falls

Anyone who has read the Harry Potter books will know how to deal with a boggart*.

Boggarts are creatures that reveal themselves to you in the shape of your greatest fear. If you hate spiders they will appear as a six-foot tarantula, and if you hate racism they will look like Nick Griffin of the BNP. The way to deal with a boggart is to use the Riddikulus spell. You point your wand at the creature and think of something really funny.

I think the nation must have been using the Riddikulus spell last Thursday night when the BNP leader joined the BBC Question Time panel. To me, the man lost a lot of his menace and by the end of the programme was more a figure of fun than a serious threat to British politics.

He came across as a bumbling fool. There were moments when he made a little sense but they were few and far between. Most of the time he denied any quotes attributed to him, backtracked on everything he had ever said and laughed, apparently at his own inability to answer questions. He didn’t want to comment on his Holocaust denial, he said, because European law made it illegal to do so. There was some laughter when Jack Straw, the Justice Minister, gave him permission to expound his theory without fear of prosecution. He then admitted that he used to deny the Holocaust but now he believed it because he had listened to recordings of some intercepted radio messages from Germany during the war.

What this tells me is that he is slow; he has finally taken on board an historic fact that everyone else knew 60 years ago. He had previously said that the Jews who spoke of the Holocaust were like the people who once thought the world was flat. I wonder when Nick Griffin discovered that it was not flat? Did someone intercept a message from Neil Armstrong on the moon? The alternative, forgive me for suggesting it, is that he is lying through his teeth.

Last Friday’s papers, television and radio were full of reports of the programme that created such controversy and trebled Question Time’s viewing audience. Some suggested that Griffin had been bullied. I didn’t see evidence of that. He was given plenty of opportunity to answer questions but seemed unable to do so. All he did was smirk, laugh and nod his head vigorously as though to show he agreed with all reasonably minded people. The bulk of the questions related to BNP attitudes, but Griffin must have known that would be the case. I laughed at Griffin, but perhaps that was the wrong response. Perhaps that could lull me into a false sense of security because, when all is said and done, this man is selling a message of hate wrapped in a parcel of fear.

Should Griffin have been allowed on Question Time? Yes he should. Our rules of democracy say that if a political party reaches a certain threshold they are entitled to be heard. And, on balance, I thought having him on TV might have done some good because he did not come across well. He tried to sound moderate, when moderation is certainly not something that he wears with any comfort.

I hate what the BNP stands for because I have lived in racist societies and seen what destruction they cause. But I also hate the fact that so many of their rank and file members are afraid to stand up and be counted.

I have had several anonymous letters from BNP members but on a recent occasion I was impressed to get a letter through the door at work that had been signed, with an address given. Unfortunately the address was just a couple of doors away from a colleague of mine who knew the owners of the house who certainly did not go under the name given.

If the BNP is a moderate party seeking only what is best for the citizens of Britain, why are so many members scurrying around in the shadows? Why are they so afraid to stand up and be counted?

Times and Star

*Or indeed, a bogart, which was how boggart was spelled in the article.

Jeered, scorned and ridiculed - still BNP's Nick Griffin milks his moment in spotlight on Question Time

In for a rough ride - Griffin on the Question Time panel

Nick Griffin was booed, jeered and mocked by a hostile television audience on the BBC's Question Time last night. But the British National Party leader's priceless air time still left the Corporation facing accusations of 'publicity-seeking' naivety.

Senior Labour figures warned of racist attacks in the coming days, leaving the BBC with 'blood on its hands'.

Mr Griffin ran the gauntlet of 1,000 angry protesters who had laid siege to the Question Time studio at Television Centre in West London. The 50-year-old, who has a criminal conviction for inciting racial hatred, was loudly booed as he went before the cameras under tight security.

Facing angry heckling, and at times looking shaken, Mr Griffin:

• Repeatedly refused to give his views on the Holocaust, drawing attacks from Jewish members of the audience.
• Claimed that Winston Churchill would have joined the BNP.
• Was branded 'disgusting' by one black member of the audience.
• Was forced to deny he had said that black men 'walk like monkeys'.
• Was laughed at when he admitted meeting Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and claimed the organisation was 'non violent'.
• Was jeered by a lesbian member of the audience who told him: 'The feeling of revulsion is mutual'.
• One Asian member of the audience called for a whip round to pay for him to go and live at the South Pole where he could enjoy a 'colourless landscape'.

The BBC was forced on to the back foot over the decision to invite Mr Griffin on to the show. David Dimbleby, who chaired the session, tried to calm audience unrest by insisting that the programme 'won't be the Nick Griffin show'. But he refused a request to take an audience vote on the rights and wrongs of the decision.

Baroness Warsi, the Tory panel member, said: 'If you look at the audience and reaction outside, people are outraged by his views and he has been exposed for what he is.'

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said the evening capped a 'catastrophic week for the BNP'.

They were joined on the panel by Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne and black poet Bonnie Greer. Mr Huhne said Winston Churchill would be 'rolling' in his grave if he could hear Mr Griffin speak today.

Around a thousand anti-fascists protest against the BNP at the BBC

Things get a tad hairy as flares are set off in the crowd of angry protestors

About 25 protestors breached security and were promptly hauled out

Earlier Mr Griffin's appearance provoked angry scenes outside Television Centre. Three police office officers were injured and six protesters arrested. At one stage, around 25 people stormed inside the West London building as they attempted to find the Question Time studios. Flares were let off and women dragged kicking and screaming back outside by security guards.

Mr Griffin, meanwhile, was smuggled in via a side entrance by up to 40 dark-suited security guards. Inside, he attacked Mr Straw saying his own father was in the RAF in the Second World War, while Mr Straw's was arrested for refusing to fight.

A black man in the audience was cheered when he confronted Mr Griffin. His voice shaking with emotion, the man said: 'For just one minute could you not think of the benefits my parents brought to this country and other parents from an Asian, Indian or Pakistani background have brought? No, all you're thinking of doing is trying to poison politics and poison the minds of people in this country. The vast majority of this audience find what you stand for to be completely disgusting'

Mr Griffin smirked when he was asked whether he denied the Holocaust but refused to answer detailed questions on the issue. Of his previous comments, he said: 'I can't explain why I used to say those things.'

He acknowledged that the BNP had been a 'racist and anti-semitic organisation', but claimed it had changed under his leadership. 'I am not a Nazi and never have been,' he said. He was wearing the poppy he rarely removes. He says he wears it in protest at the poor treatment of soldiers injured in Afghanistan.

Shimal Thakrar, 33, from Edgware in London, said: 'It certainly wasn't as controversial as had been made out beforehand. The guy couldn't stand his ground at all. He contradicted himself throughout. He had no consistency. It was a needed debate. But he's not a politician.'

Mr Thakrar said the audience hissed and booed during the filming and shouted 'Liar' and 'Get out the door,' at Mr Griffin. The BBC had received more than 1,000 complaints ahead of the broadcast.

Senior Labour politicians predicted that black and Asian people would face a violent backlash in the coming days. The BBC insisted it had no choice but to offer an invitation to the BNP following the party's success in the European elections. But critics have accused the corporation of being naive and driven by a desire to boost ratings.

Higher Education Minister David Lammy, one of Britain's first black ministers, said ordinary people from ethnic minority backgrounds would face violence as a result. He added: 'This is a seminal moment for the country. I am very worried about the days that will follow. Many people across the country, black and white, will be appalled that Nick Griffin has been given a platform on the BBC's flagship current affairs programme for his terrible racist views. Many others, a long way from Broadcasting House, will be left very scared.'

However Mr Lammy acknowledged that the mainstream parties had to accept some of the blame for the rise of the BNP.

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett criticised the BBC for 'publicity seeking'.

'To spend the first ten minutes of the Six O'Clock News covering their own decision and the consequences of putting the leader of the BNP on Question Time, was a total distortion of news priority and a deliberate promotion of their own publicity-seeking decision,' he said.

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson yesterday defended the decision to offer an invitation to Mr Griffin. Mr Thompson said the Government should change the law if it did not want the party to appear on news and current affairs programme. He said: 'Censorship cannot be outsourced to the BBC.'

Daily Mail

Note: If you missed the programme, you can watch it and laugh at Griffin here.

BNP launches online assault on ethnic-minority Question Time panellists

The British National Party has launched an online assault on the two ethnic-minority members of the BBC Question Time panel who will take on Nick Griffin, the party’s leader, this week

A posting on the BNP’s website derided Bonnie Greer, the writer and broadcaster, as a “black history fabricator”, and said that Baroness Warsi, the Conservative spokeswoman for community cohesion, who is of Pakistani origin, was a “product of Tory affirmative action”. The remarks came as the BBC struck back at ministers such as Peter Hain, the Welsh Secretary, and Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, who have criticised the corporation for inviting Mr Griffin on to Question Time.

Ric Bailey, the broadcaster’s chief political adviser, said that the BBC was legally bound to include the BNP and that if Mr Johnson wanted to change that he should outlaw the party. Mr Bailey said: “If the politicians feel strongly that the BNP should not be on programmes like Question Time because of their policies, they have the ability to take things through Parliament and change the law.”

Mr Hain has written to the BBC warning that it could face legal action unless it suspended plans to have Mr Griffin on Question Time. Mr Hain argued that the BNP was “an unlawful body” because its whites-only membership rules breached discrimination legislation.

Thousands of protesters from groups such as Unite Against Fascism are expected to gather outside BBC Television Centre, in West London, when Question Time is filmed on Thursday.

Mr Bailey said that the BBC had a legal obligation to cover the BNP as it had won two seats in the European Parliament.If the party continued to enjoy similar levels of public support it is likely to be invited back on to the programme in the future.

A posting on the BNP website about Ms Greer focused on Radio 4’s In Search of the Black Madonna, which she presented in 2000. The party claimed that the show, which examined how European Catholics had worshipped in front of black icons, represented a “fabrication” of history. In an interview on Sky News Mr Griffin said of Ms Greer: “I think she’s a bit wacky when she sets out to say that Europeans, throughout the Middle Ages, worshipped black women,” he said. “So she’s got quirky aspects but the British like an eccentric so I’m sure we’ll get on all right.”

Times Online

Broadcasting union and BBC heading for clash over BNP

British broadcasting union BECTU has issued a press release criticising the BBC and the justice minister, Jack Straw, for their willingness to endorse the participation of the far-right British National Party (BNP) in a forthcoming edition of the TV discussion programme Question Time.

The BBC says it is obliged, under its charter, to give airtime to the BNP because it is a legal political party which has a number of MEP’s, though it does not currently have any MPs at Westminster. But BECTU, today insisted that the BNP should not be given airtime to promote its racist politics.

The union’s statement comes in reply to the BBC’s decision to accept a proposal from the producers of Question Time that BNP leader Nick Griffin should join the panel for the programme on Thursday 22 October. BECTU has also criticised the justice minister, Jack Straw, for his decision to take part in the broadcast planned for 22 October.

“The Labour Party has always said that it would not share a platform with racists; this is not a matter upon which ministers should be permitted a ‘free vote’. Jack Straw’s decision is doing damage to his credibility as a senior government figure and to the Labour Party. We call upon him to reverse his decision to take part,” said BECTU General Secretary Gerry Morrissey.

BECTU represents production staff across all roles in broadcasting and has on previous occasions pledged to support any member who chooses, as a matter of conscience, not to work on output which either involves or promotes the BNP. In the past broadcasters have respected that individuals can exercise this choice.

BECTU has today reiterated that same commitment to support all members who choose not to work on this particular edition of Question Time if it goes ahead with a BNP representative on the panel. The union will also be lending its support to anti-fascist organisations who will be campaigning against Question Time’s plans to give the BNP airtime.

Media Network

Straw to join BNP's Nick Griffin in Question Time debate

Justice secretary's appearance will reverse Labour's stance of not sharing platform with far-right party

Jack Straw has confirmed he will join the BNP leader Nick Griffin on an edition of the BBC's Question Time programme. Labour had previously made a point of not appearing alongside the far-right party, but Straw said today that he was "delighted" to have the opportunity to take on Griffin, MEP for the North West, on the flagship programme.

Anti-fascist campaigners reacted with anger to the news and called for huge demonstrations to be mounted outside the BBC studios when the programme is made.

Straw, who regularly takes on all comers in debate from a soapbox in his Blackburn constituency, said the BNP were defeated when Labour "fought them hard". He told the BBC's Politics Show North West: "Some people support the BNP because they subscribe to their views. Others do it out of a feeling of despair. We've got to make the argument, and I'm delighted to do so."

The BBC confirmed that the two men were among the panellists booked for a recording of the show, hosted by David Dimbleby, in London on 22 October. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats confirmed that they would be fielding representatives.

Straw's announcement brought a renewed attack on the BBC's decision from his cabinet colleague, Peter Hain. The Welsh secretary said he was meeting BBC executives on Wednesday to try to persuade them to drop their decision to give the BNP a seat on the panel. He also questioned whether the BBC was legally obliged to invite the BNP to appear after the party won two seats in the European parliament elections in June and said he would back any legal action that challenged the decision.

"I don't buy this stuff that under electoral law the BNP's two European seats allows them to be treated in the same way as the mainstream parties. If there were to be any legal action against the BBC I would wish it well," said Hain.

He added: "Their [the BNP's] MEPs were elected on a tiny vote and a low turnout. It's an absolute scandal that the BBC are treating an avowedly racist and fascist [party] on equal terms, in a way that will legitimise their standing in the public's eyes."

Hain said he was directing his anger at the BBC, rather than Straw, saying the corporation had put Labour ministers in an "impossible position" because they did not want the BNP to go unchallenged by leaving an empty chair.

Unite Against Fascism has pledged to hold a demonstration against the BBC's decision. Hain said he fully supported the group's actions.

A BBC spokeswoman said its obligation to treat all parties registered with the Electoral Commission "with due impartiality" was enshrined in the corporation's charter. She said that by winning two seats in the European parliament the BNP had demonstrated evidence of electoral support at national level, which would be reflected in the coverage it received on programmes such as Question Time.


Tony Kearns, assistant general secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, said it was a "disgrace" that the BBC was offering the BNP a seat on Question Time despite a huge outcry in recent weeks. He called on ministers and MPs to join protests against the decision.

Gordon Brown announced earlier this month that Labour had agreed to field a minister against the BNP and said those with long-standing opposition to sharing a platform with the party would not come under pressure to appear, naming Hain, and the home secretary, Alan Johnson.

The Liberal Democrats said they will probably field Chris Huhne, their home affairs spokesman. The party's leader, Nick Clegg, said last week: "If the BBC ask one of these fascist thugs, who have been elected to the European parliament, on to one of their flagship programmes, then I want us to be there to take them on."

The Conservatives said they did not yet know who would represent them on the programme.

The BNP could not be contacted for comment.

Observer

Gordon Brown wants Jack Straw to take on BNP on Question Time

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, is being touted behind the scenes in the Labour Party as the man to take on Nick Griffin, the unsavoury leader of the British National Party, on Question Time after the BBC decided to allow him the oxygen of publicity on the programme.

Officially, Labour is now "reviewing" its policy of never fielding members to debate with representatives of the racist party. Gordon Brown is, I am told, taking a personal interest in the issue and favours Straw, a lawyer by training, as the man to take on Griffin.

"We have to put up a heavyweight, otherwise we will be accused of giving Griffin too easy a time of it," whispers my man at Labour Party headquarters.

Still, there is a danger that Griffin may throw back at Straw the comments he made about Islamic veils in 2006. The Blackburn MP described them as a "visible statement of separation and difference" and called on women to cease wearing them. This allegedly led to ugly instances of yobs pulling veils off Muslim women in streets.

He doesn't seem to find it too hard to outwit Gordon Brown, but David Cameron apparently failed to dazzle one of his tutors at Eton. Last week, a large group of Old Etonians honoured a retired beak, Michael Kidson, on his 80th birthday with a dinner at White's and were regaled with a special tribute from the Tory leader.

The letter from Cameron that was read out disclosed that he had written to Kidson to thank him after he was awarded an A grade in his history A-level. The teacher said he had greeted the news of Cameron's achievement as "amongst the most inexplicable events in modern history".

Telegraph

Nazi sticker on Blackburn BNP man's car

A British National Party activist drives around with the word “Nazi” written on the back of his car, it has been revealed.

Robin Evans, the BNP’s Blackburn organiser, said he had not tried to remove the word as he did not find it offensive. The former councillor for Mill Hill in Blackburn, who now lives in Darwen, said he did not know who had stuck the letters on his metallic green Volkswagen Golf, but thought it was “quite funny”, adding: “It doesn’t bother me”

Blackburn MP Jack Straw said the sticker “exposed the true colours of the BNP”.

Party leader Nick Griffin, who was recently elected as a Euro MP for the North West, advised Mr Evans to remove the term.

When asked about it by the Lancashire Telegraph Mr Evans, who stood for the BNP at this month’s Darwen Town Council elections, said: “You know what people are like. Everyone calls me a Nazi. Someone put it on there 12 months ago. It was in silver letters. What you see there is the wreckage. I haven’t a clue who tried to take it off but I couldn’t be bothered. To be honest I thought it was quite funny. It’s better than them putting my windows through or smashing bottles on my head which I’ve had before. The car is on its last legs. I would rather be driving around in a big Porsche. But my car and whatever it looks like does its job and I am OK with it.”

Asked whether he found the term ‘Nazi’ offensive, Mr Evans added: “Everyone is individual. My personal interpretation, not the BNP’s, is that it means a nationalist, which is where the word has come from. If someone’s in the street screaming ‘Nazi, Nazi’, that is offensive. It is not offensive against other people.”

Mr Straw, the Justice Secretary, said: “It’s very offensive, especially to people who are Jewish, but also to virtually everyone else in society. This exposes the BNP’s true colours.”

Coun Tony Melia, the leader of the For Darwen Party leader and deputy council leader, said: “If someone put that on my car I would have it taken down instantly. It is absolutely tasteless.”

Mr Griffin said: “I would advise him to take it off. It was obviously put there by some crank. He may be putting a brave face on it.”

Asked whether he found the term offensive, he added: “I don’t know if it’s offensive per se, you see all sorts of swastikas on news stands and history books. But used against us it is highly offensive, because we believe in British values like free speech.”

Lancashire Telegraph