“I was horrified when I heard about this, because it makes them appear as if they are another political party sitting on a panel along with democratically-elected parties,” he said.
Firstly – unless Mr Hain has evidence of election fraud, in which case he should hand it over to the relevant authorities – the BNP are a democratically-elected party. It probably hasn’t escaped him that Mr Griffin is now a member of the European Parliament. But he is right on the other count. The BNP are not just another political party. They are a ragtag bunch of yobs, mead-drinking pagan weirdos and boneheads. And yet their vote is increasing all over Britain. And one of the reasons for this is that they are able to play the martyr card.
We’re not part of the establishment, they tell the electorate.But any half-decent frontline politician should be able to reduce the BNP to dust in a debate. From the top down – including Mr Griffin – the BNP are economically illiterate. Their manifesto, leaving aside the fact that much of it is odious by most people’s standards – doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny, even just pragmatically.
Look – the big parties gang up to make sure we don’t get a fair crack of the whip from the media.
We’re the voice of the little man kept away from the top table.
Let’s be blunt: the BNP are thick. The Question Time panel should be able to make mincemeat out of Mr Griffin, who gets away with it precisely because he never gets tackled on any of the big issues.
Rather than relegate the BNP to the electoral margins, as was intended, the “no platform” policy has had precisely the opposite effect, allowing the party to set its own terms without ever facing the kind of scrutiny other parties do.
What would the BNP do, given the chance? We know they’re not very keen on non-white people. But how would they tackle the black hole in the UK economy? What form of healthcare do they favour? What is their education policy? Where do they stand on regulation of the City? We don’t know, because we’re not supposed to ask.
It is the duty of every mainstream politician to go up against the BNP in debate and expose them. Not just expose them for their extreme views – but as being incapable of running a shoe-shine stall, never mind the most minor community council. Their councillors, when elected, frequently fail to show up to meetings. People such as Stoke councillor Steve Batkin, who attended none of a possible 30 committee meetings in nine months and spoke twice in his first two years as a councillor – once to ask what “abstain” meant.
Are these the sort of people Mr Hain and his fellow Labour ministers are worried about debating with?
Allied to this is the unspoken belief among ministers that the British public cannot be trusted – that as soon as Mr Griffin appears on TV, his poll ratings will soar as viewers up and down the country nod in agreement. Actually, they might be pleasantly surprised. They might find that, when in the full glare of the media, forced to answer questions on policy by opposition politicians, the public may see the BNP for what they are: a bunch of louts who have been getting away with it for far too long.
Wales Online
13 comments:
You are 100% correct. The BNP operate as a fringe group who have never had to justify or even state what their policy is on any issue other than that of race.
From time to time they have made some sweeping statement which indicates that they really are clueless about everything.
If they want to be treated as a mainstream party then let them state their policies and be open to scrutiny and the ridicule which will no doubt follow.
This is the very best way to deal with the BNP - they are incapable of understanding even the most rudimentary economics and their academics refer to the stock exchange as a "Jewish Swindle". They actually have no economic policy and are unable to balance their own books let alone tackle the nation’s debt! The same goes for their view on the environment - global warming is to quote "just rubbish" and on it goes.
If you want to really expose them they need to be asked to state their position on such issues in a public forum where they can be challenged.
read the website you fucking alien transvestites !
"fucking alien transvestites"
Nice insult. Well done.
I don't agree.
The claim that the BNP "are thick" is largely correct. However Griffin is slippery and relatively intelligent.
He will worm his way out of every question and criticism, lie and make it look as if he is being persecuted and misrepresented, just as he has done in every media interview he has had.
We will end up looking like the extremists, when we refuse to believe his lies.
Dear Unity killer, I think you will find that,as you are reading here, we go for a bit of a laugh on your webshite.
It is fundamentally correct that based upon the sweeping claims / statements made by your illustrious leadership that, indeed, they should be held up to be the complete dickheads that they, and you, are.
For example, the article about the EU giving $13 billion to Africa to help tackle climate change.
Now whilst I have issues with the whole concept of carbon trading, you beloved party webshite offers nothing except a nice little tagline about EU taxpayers being 'ripped off'. This is a choice line sure to rile the legion of knuckledraggers, who, with no need for opposable thumbs happily rant away on the comments section.
And what do the BNP offer as an alternative........ er tumbleweed, nowt, zilch..... why? Because they have no idea, no alternative, no visionary plan.
Your webshite is a series of selectively plucked articles with no original thought in them..... apart from the begging messages from Prick et al
I've a feeling that letting the BNP participate in a debate or discussion will produce comedy gold.
Much like the Mayor of Doncasters interview on BBC Radio Sheffield.
Listen to it here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLrMXsS4rwA
Alien beings, if they exist (and Loony Lee Barnes is a believer - "Beam Me Up, Barnsey!!! lol), probably don't reproduce sexually, as cloning is a more likely method of reproduction.
So transvestite aliens are highly improbably, Mista Troll!!! Sorry to burst your bubble, lol
As advanced beings, they are less likely than stupid racist BNP-loving (un)human beings to hate people with a different colour of skin.
This may be the first time in my entire life that i'll be watching QT wuth a box of popcorn :)
Wonder if the panel or audience will grill Griffin over his "indeginous" British past...
You say that mainstream politicians should debate with the BNP. But the problem is that mainstream policians are overwhelmingly hyprocrites and hypocrites always fail in the face of bigotry.
Labour has pandered to the racism of the BNP by slashing asylum seekers allowances.
Our MPs have mired themselves in greed and sleaze and been exposed in the recent expenses scandal.
None of the mainstream parties have any answers to the problems of ordinary people, and will squirm like worms on a fish hook when they are asked for them.
Both Labour and the Tories are planning huge cuts in spending on the public services we all need, and will continue to privatise others.
How can politicians take any kind of principled stand on such swampy foundations?
To answer the BNP, we need a politics that ordinary people can see is offering them a real alternative to privatisations, poverty, war and racism.
Leave answering the BNP to the 'mainstream politicians' and we might as well prepare ourselves for the concentration camps.
Corrupt money grabbing backstabbing ba***rd - Yes.
Idiot? No.
Griffin will know EXACTLY what questions will be put to him and how to quickly turn them around; he is well seasoned and ready for this box-standard anti-BNP stuff – ‘Nazi’, ‘Fascist’, ‘Hate’, ‘Race’, blah, blah, blah.
Now if they [the panel in waiting] really want to rile him and see him all at sea, they need to throw him a curve ball – something that he is not expecting.
They need to be prepared with evidence of his financial improprieties on paper, his failed businesses and how he screws the BNP membership, even down to charging people £1 for a cheap cup of nats-piss tea at the RWB. This would of course include his new partner in grime – Dowson. The panel could draw the debate in and around general corruption, the expenses scandal and what not, and then attack him. I can guarantee he’ll utterly hate it and loose composure within two minutes. With his composure gone he’ll sweat like a pig and open himself up like a boxer that’s been tagged.
Sorry, got to argue the point here. Alien transvestites are more than likely, as anyone who has watched The Rocky Horror Show will tell you.
They didn't collaborate with nazis, either.
Have commented on the Wales site but not getting any support just morons and BNP trolls.
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When I was in the National Front many years ago I did a number of interviews with various sections of the media and on those occasions when I was asked questions on any subject I didn't really have a grasp of I would simply respond by saying that the social problems caused by immigration were of such a magnitude that to speak of other matters while the situation persisted was a distraction the main issue of the day. It doesn't sound very convincing coming from me here and now but at the time I had a form of words which enabled me to present the most ludicrous rubbish in a way that made me sound almost intellectual.
Griffin is better at it than I ever was and he will be ready and rehearsed for anything of this nature, plus he will know that with several panelists, limited time and a number of questions to be asked he won't be put on the spot for too long and that a smartarse answer, which at worst will only have to be repeated once or twice, will get him out of any corner.
I would agree that "No Platform" cannot be applied today with the same thoroughness as it was in the 1980s, for example, but it is quite another thing to give Griffin a platform like this when we don't have to do it.
The BNP decision is wrong. I also think it is not a little suspicious.
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