John Woodhouse: BNP leader Nick Griffin on Question Time
A THOUSAND protesters outside Television Centre – Nick Griffin and mainstream TV don't mix awfully well. Let's face it, if he was on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, the insects would walk off.
Nice to see him wearing a poppy though. It's important at this time of year that we remember the ultimate sacrifice made by hundreds of thousands of British people in the fight against fascism.
Beforehand, Griffin, had claimed his Question Time appearance could send his BNP into "the big time". But with the "big time" comes big exposure. And exposed Griffin certainly was.
"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."
Griffin's difficulty in trying to enter the mainstream political arena comes not just from placard waving hecklers, but from the spectre of his inglorious past.
Under cross examination, for example, he admitted he'd shared a platform with a leader from the Klu Klux Klan, but he was "a totally non-violent" one. Because of course the Klu Klux Klan spend most of the time skipping through the meadows of the American deep south with a butterfly net.
He also once denied the Holocaust, dubbing it the 'Holohoax'. He smiled when quizzed by David Dimbleby on the matter. It was ill-advised. "Why are you smiling?" snapped Dimbleby. "It's not a particularly amusing issue."
The best Griffin, pictured right, could come up with by way of an answer? "I cannot explain why I used to say those things".
The subject overlapped with Griffin's recent claim that "if Churchill were alive today his natural place would be in the BNP".
"Winston Churchill put everything on the line so that my ancestors wouldn't get slaughtered in the concentration camps," said one young Jewish man, "but here sits a man who says that's a myth, just like a flat world was a myth."
Griffin, though, claims he is not a Nazi. "There are Nazis in Britain and they loathe me," he stated. It must have come as a shock to a good proportion of the viewing audience that they have something in common with Nazis.
Perhaps what annoyed the Nazis was Griffin's assertion, which he disputed saying, that Adolf Hitler went "a bit too far".
Mr Griffin blamed the "political elite" for imposing "an enormous multicultural experiment on the British people".
Apt I suppose. In mythology, the griffin has the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion.
Sometimes it has a long snake for a tail. Oh how it must grate, Nick. You're the ultimate mixed-race legend.
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32 Comments
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by David, S-O-T
Monday, October 26 2009, 3:12PM
“Very true what you say of our politicians Paul. Charlotte Atkins brainchild ideas at the Immigration centre in Hanley have meant that the disabled have had to show for Disability Tribunals outnumbered and surrounded 25 to one by asylum seekers. If that's how they intend to encourage fairness and rationallity then they need to be voted out.”
by Paul, Chesterfield
Monday, October 26 2009, 7:51AM
“I do support the BNP ,or indeed, the right but defend their right to air their views , after all isn't that what 200 plus British lives have been lost for in Afghanistan . The sucess of the BNP lies squarely at the feet of the apathists who cannot find the time ,or energy , to go to the polling station. They ( the BNP) pander to every little paranoid, and often ill-informed , concern, they are cheap, tabloid politics. If your MP isn't working get off your duff and vote them out. Only then will the mainstream parties realise how tyhey have arrogantly taken for granted our support .”
by Anthony, Home
Sunday, October 25 2009, 8:23AM
“The fact is that the middle class intellectuals who have been critical of Griffin probably voted for the NU Labour garbage we are all suffering. Over a million people do vote for the BNP like it or not it is democracy.
I think it will cause the other parties to sort their acts out. You have to be a cretin to think the current immigration and asylum policies are sustainable, fair, acceptable to the majority.”
by JOHN, STAFFS
Friday, October 23 2009, 6:33PM
“Well he right on london being ethnically cleansed and what a hole and i know having work all over london and that the trouble
with some who've commented on here you wont to get about
a bit more and see the likes of Bradford bolton Leeds Birmingham Coventry Leicestershire ect and then you will see what real Multiculturalism and intergration means.”
by E.B., Stoke
Friday, October 23 2009, 6:12PM
“It was not so long ago people were disgusted that our leaders were in dialogue with the IRA.
LOOK HOW THAT ENDED.
The last thing we should be doing is making martyrs out of the BNP,We should talk to them in open debate,and let the people see what they truly represent.”
by Chris Cooper, Newcastle
Friday, October 23 2009, 5:33PM
“There¿s no such thing as bad Publicity, in politics of course. Demonise a group and look what happens, they become Martyrs.
Muslims are a case in point, though they do have a rather explosive way of showing it.
Must say not the style for our extremists, what.......there never was going to be a fair debate, in fact I would edge my bet and say the BNP actually recruited on the performance that was generated by the ultra "fair" BBC. You wont defeat the BNP by trying to be openly hostile, they may seem to be wacky and loony and the rest of it, but on the street they the people doing the work within the Community. the rest of the Politicos are on paid leave as are the pillocks in control at the minute, Jack Straw drawing on his ethnic origins as though they were a badge of honour walked headlong into the same old same old that was expected of the baying pack. The BNP have wisely shifted the Goal Posts onto another Pitch we who should be opposing them are still on the old pitch, when are we going to wake up and realise that the only way to defeat them is to engage with them, but more importantly you have got to engage with the voters, sorry the people who do not vote who will probably after last nights orchestrated debacle vote for the BNP.”
by David, S-O-T
Friday, October 23 2009, 5:24PM
“Since, for financial reasons alone, Christmas can' never be cancelled E.B. I'm sure they're writing the hour long special now even as I type. Personally though, if it's shown on Two and clashes with Dr. Who I shall miss it.”
by E.B., Stoke
Friday, October 23 2009, 5:11PM
“Well,Well,What balanced views.NOT.This post sums up why people are turning to the parasitic BNP,Who says that question time is not politically correct!! Well, the audience there last night was staged managed against the BNP, that was pretty obvious. Also, the panel were like pathetic children,trying to score points with the audience,
Everyone was so determined to denegrate Nick Griffin,they forgot to question Jack Straw on how he,and his cronies have bankrupted this country.
The only point i agree on is, We do not want to see them on there again for a while.
Alas,they probably have as much support, if not more than the Lib dems,so they should have as much telly time as them.and they will probably get more votes than Labour at the next elections anyway.I find the vast majority of polititions are slimy,self gratifying parasites, Hence they all looked like chickens in the same roost.Just a last point .If as we all agree peopleshould have the right to protest, Does Nick Griffin and his ilk not have the right to free speech, whether we like what he says or not.”
by Andy, Sandbach
Friday, October 23 2009, 5:09PM
“Anthony, Mountpleasant, I fear that you are purposefully confusing Politcal Correctness with Islamic faith.
Yes, it is wrong that children cannot take part in natvity plays. This however is the fault of the "trendy" political correctness fanatics (most of whom are white and middle class) and not the minority faiths.
You are doing exactly what Nick Griffin so badly did on Question Time and that is manipulating fact to suit your on view points.”
by David, S-O-T
Friday, October 23 2009, 4:39PM
“This is worrying. Now I can't seem to find where I've supported Anthony OR the views of the BNP. Oh right, sorry. I fell out of your "agree with me or be pilloried" box. Trevor. I'm not so easilly catagorized, thopugh I feel I should apologise.for that. I dislike containment and over control of the individual is all. It's a trait I have. Part of being English.”