It appears that the BNP have made another small but significant step into mainstream acceptance with the news that Nick Griffin has been invited to appear as a panellist on the show in October. This is entirely in line with the BNPs medium term plans of a slow but steady normalisation of their presence in domestic political life. Griffin will be aware that this appearance will represent a challenge that could potentially backfire for him, but it’s challenge built out of consistent ongoing success not difficulties imposed on him so will be welcomed.
The BNP have made great gains out of positioning themselves as being outside and against the old gang of mainstream politicians with their snouts in the trough and I expect the reactions of the other panellists (99% of whom are recongised as careerist scumbags and hated by the general public) will allow him to play the same role – expect across the board personal hostility allied with attempts to appeal to the C1/C2 voters in swing areas that research has shown the BNP particularly successful in attracting- have your ears ready to pick up the dog whistles. Labour will also drop their ‘commitment’ not to appear with the BNP due to the above. Will Griffin come out guns blazing himself though? He is often a very aggressive interviewee and will be aware this opportunity may not present itself again.
Elements of mainstream anti-fascism have already reacted exactly as expected, calling for Griffins removal as the BNP re not a ‘normal politial party’ (Bennet of course*), not like those Tories and Labour who they then hold hands with in defence of proper country-invading, anti-working class, BNP producing democratic principles. The option that this presents an opportunity to attack the BNP as being just another establishment party is not even considered in this scenario – attacking their plans on the things that are driving their vote – social conditions – doesn’t appear in the rush to shout about the holocaust. Shouting and finger wagging is as far as this approach gets. And, of course listing terrible establishment figures who would ‘rip Griffin apart’ – (the way that Paxman and Campbell ripped him apart presumably – I.e they were shown to be totally out of their depth) – Tony Benn, Chakrabarti, Rob Newman(!), Mark Steel and so on.
Of course, the real issue of how they’ve managed to get themselves into a position to be legitimately invited onto the show will now probably get swept away in useless chatter about this meaningless event.
* Weyman has decided to get tough over this:
“We will send the BBC a letter saying that it’s not legitimate to give them a platform of respectability when they have a policy of discriminating against people on grounds of race.”
This helpfully demonstrates the idiocy of the EHCR’s decision to take the BNP to court over their racist constitution, now that the BNP have all but agreed to make the EHCR’s alterations they can claim to be no longer racist and have the succesor body of the Commision for Racial Equality supporting that claim. Think a wee bit harder Weyman, because you’ll be supporting their appearance come October with this logic.
lets hope that neither The Black Hand or Ian Bone get a call to join the panel !
Thats Dr The Black Hand Chuck
shit – I fear griffin will do well. He invariably does in a debate because he is an intelligent bloke and a good debater and he will simply claim the populist ground from the off and stick to it which is a routine he could do in his sleep. Where in the country is the one he will appear on?
Apparently he’s pencilled in for Manchester.
We will never see the end of UAF in Manchester then what with the EDF demo October and now Griffin. It will be interesting to see what line the Manchester evening news takes and the Labour Council. The MEN was pretty much Hope not hate’s daily sheet during the Euro elections.
MEN comes out with BNP shouldn’t be on , having wrestled with the ‘fact’ that how ever good it would be to expose their lies the editorial comes to the conclusions that the BNP as a threat to democracy is bigger.
I thought M.E.N would be against it – didn’t they run a lot of anti-BNP articles in the run up to the euro elects?
Stacks. It could have had some effect but its difficult to quantify as Griifin was still elected. Their biggest underachievement was in Stockport where Winfield admitted that they were very disappointed with their vote. What was noticeable there was that there was little Hope Not Hate or UAF activity. Perhaps their is a link?
on a practical level, how are they going to do it? In all likelihood, it´ll turn chaotic almost instantly, as all the audience questions will be levelled at Griffin, for or against, and the entire panel will be engaging primarily with him.
Definite shift in policy at the BBC, btw. Whenever they´ve feature immigration on the news, they seem to carry a quote for one-eye.
You might be surprised at just how stage managed QT is. The audience is as handpicked as possible – invites are sent out to all the mainstream parties, if there’s still space local voluntary and responsible groups are invited. Walk up attendance is practically nil and what there is vetted as far as possible. Comments from the floor are kept to a minimum and substantive questions ignored in favour of the set ones. If the mic is not brought to you you’ve very little chance of out shouting people with mics.
And of course, the questions will picked to try and deter that total focus on Griffin – which doesn’t mean it’ll work though.
Some good commentary here
I’ve met very few slobbering racists in my lifetime I have to say. Most racist people I have encountered have been far more of the low-level anti-immigration type. I think it’s unrealistic to expect the UK not to be susceptible to this kind of argument – it’s successful in all other european countries and across the globe so why would it not have some degree of success here. All countries will have people within them that will turn anti immigration when married with a reasonably well run opportunistic party such as the bnp. If you marry that with the effects of islamic fundamentalism and the neglect of the mainstream parties over the last 20 years to implement effective policies or even to bother canvassing working class areas along with labours complete departure from ‘old labour’ policies it’s a pretty heady mix.
in reality what´s kept the modern hard right in check in the UK is basically the electoral system (also, beyond the intricacies of the politics, it´s kept the hard left in check too, both historically and in the last few years)