Passions flared up as soon as the BBC announced it would allow the highly controversial Nick Griffin on Question Time. Welsh Secretary Peter Han lodged a complaint with the BBC regarding its decision to host Mr Griffin.
However, both the BBC management as well as the trust stood by the news corporation’s decision. They say whether it was appropriate for the BNP leader to appear on the show was a matter of editorial judgment, which “the charter and framework agreement reserve for the director general.” And BBC director general Mark Thompson told the Guardian that the case against inviting Nick Griffin to appear on Question Time is “a case for censorship.”
Those who object to Mr Griffin’s appearance on the show argue the BNP is a fascistic organization which does not deserve either the political platform or legitimacy that Question Time affords. Peter Han points out it is unprecedented for the BBC to invite on to its prestigious programme a “convicted criminal found guilty of inciting racial hatred.”
But the BBC insists its decision to invite Griffin took into consideration his electoral gain in European Parliament representing the North West region, as well as the journalistic conviction that the British public should have the opportunity “to put questions to politicians of every ideological hue.”
The BNP
The current British National Party was founded in 1982 and led by John Tyndall until 1999 when he lost the leadership contest to Nick Griffin who had joined the party five years earlier. From its inception the BNP has been associated with anti-Semitism, holocaust-denial, anti-immigration and racial bigotry. Until recently when Griffin tried to polish the image of the party, the BNP openly advocated compulsory repatriation of non-whites. Now it’s advocating voluntary repatriation of legal immigrants and British citizens of foreign descent. The BNP constitution prohibits membership to non-whites, a provision a British court ruling found to be unlawful.
Nick Griffin
Nick Griffin was born in 1959. His father was a longstanding member of the Conservative Party until he was expelled in 2001 for his association with the BNP. After attending a private school in Suffolk, Nick Griffin joined Cambridge University where he studied history and law at Downing College. He began political work for the National Front, from which the BNP splintered in 1980, following his graduation from Cambridge.
After ousting John Tyndall in 1999, Griffin attempted to broaden the party’s base and win electoral seats just like the ultra-conservative Jean-Marie Le Pen did in France. His effort was met with limited success. The BNP did poorly in the 2005 general election but gained two seats in the European Parliament in 2009. Aside from his conviction in 1988 for racially inflammatory remarks, several incendiary comments in connection with Jews, blacks and Muslims are attributed to Nick Griffin.
Question Time
On October 22, 2009 Nick Griffin appeared on the coveted show Question Time along with Justice Secretary Jack Straw, Shadow Community Minister Baroness Warsi, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, playwright and critic Bonnie Greer, and host David Dimbleby. The audience was largely hostile to the BNP leader and as Griffin put it afterwards, “the show was skewed to focus almost solely on the BNP, not wider issues.” During the debate he said he was not, and has never been, a Nazi and denied some of the quotes attributed to him. But he would not specifically confirm or deny his reported denial of the Holocaust.
He also reiterated his party’s conviction that “Britain always has been, and must remain a fundamentally British and Christian country.”Mr Griffin admitted that he had once shared a platform with David Duke, a former leader of a Ku Klux Klan, which he said was non-violent, a remark that drew laughter from the audience.
After the Show
Nick Griffin says he will make formal complaint to the BBC about the show which in his case was not “a genuine Question Time” but a “lynch mob.” Viewers’ reaction that flooded the BBC and other online forums overwhelmingly expressed disapproval over the way he was treated. The strong audience reaction to Nick Griffin at Question Time appears to have been prompted by BNP’s politics on race.
The British public at large finds it outrageous that the BNP espouses some form of “racial purity” given what similar political programmes led to in the past. A member of the audience was emphasizing this point when he suggested that Nick Griffin and his cohorts should perhaps go to the South Pole to find what they seek: a colourless landscape.
Sources: BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph
