The BNP's Nick Griffin on Question Time, what are your thoughts?

[overmydeadbody]

link here

Carrie - quite. I wish I'd been there to do so. Though I'm not sure the 'rape' view was sanctioned as an official BNP view, more the rantings of a high-ranking mentalist from within their fold.

Melons - agree that Bonnie was marvellous. I love her. I sat at a table next to her once in Edinburgh - managed to maintain my cool and not leap over to say how fabulous she is. After this show, I'm not sure I'd manage such self-restraint if I saw her again .

Lenin - we're clearly talking about different Alan Davies, aren't we? You're not referring to the annoying curly-topped Essex 'comedian'? Is 'This Week' a Beeb prog?

monkeys - congratulations on protesting today.

Everyone please sign this petition.

Hear, hear, lollpops. However, I seriously doubt that's what dp intended by her question. She was just using it to avoid answering mine.

"When a black/asian/chinese person is attacked, it is seen as racist. It's only been recently that when a white person is attacked, it has been seen as racist. Everyone should be treated equally, the thing is, some groups of people have a more 'equal' setting than others. Hence, why we have Race laws in place (and rightly so)."

er, no. You miss a vital point. Its only a racist attack if the motivation for the attack is based on race. If a white person beats up a black person because they are black, thats a racist attack. If they did it because, I don't know, they didn't like the music they were listening to, it's not. And the same works for all races.

This Week followed QT and yes it is the curly comedian. I'm not quite sure why he was chosen to talk on this but he did ok.

God I've really got to go to bed but...oh my MMH, I would have fainted.
Right GOOD NIGHT!

What's that petition actually aiming for, franch?

Oh dear. Well, I might watch This Week another day. He does get right up my nose, though - just in an irritating way, like a bluebottle that won't leave your picnic alone.

Virtually noone on this island caould fit in with NG ideals. ME- Very pale white, with english rosey red cheeks, born in SE London, Both Parents born in SE London. So far seems like I could fit - Now take into account that my surname is Irish and my mothers maidename is Jewish - Oh dear thats me out then isnt it. I should have - NON NATIVE tatooed on my head just so people know lol.

He reduces the potential even more by being Homophobic and sexist!

I know it is not funny, but he is just soooo ridiculous!

What is the bnp's 'ideal indigenous briton' going to look like? If it's blonde hair and blue eyes, then they are thinking of the Norse and Germanic tribes that invaded the island, or probably later with the 'German' Kings and Queens. So theoretically not indigenous from the ice age.

I thought the ladies on the panel were fantastic, could we have them on mumsnet do you think?
Is anyone else feeling twitchy after last night?

obviously haven't read all 9 billion or so posts on this thread but thought i'd give my objective (in the sense that i'm not from england or living in england)
i thing nick griffin did alright in the first 20 minutes or so.
had a terrible second 20 when he said things like "i can't tell you why i said that" and a pathetic attempt at a climb down on the holocaust denial thing.
and then finished alright due to the turgid pack around him.

the only reason i think he did alright is because of the awful tactics of both the studio audience and the rest of the panel.
rather than doing what they should have done for every question,give him enough rope to hang himself, they turned it into exactly what nick grffin would have wanted which is a "them against us" situation.

they all seemed to be in an exercise of competitive disgust and media posturing at times which lended itself a pantomime villain feel for griffin where no matter what he said,even if agreeing with someone, it was wrong and anything said about the bnp by the other oanelists,even if it was irrelevant to the question they had been asked or lacked context to the question,was met with rapturous applause.
for me this took attention off the evil crap he was trying to put forward because you become annoyed by the x-factor style booing and lack of nous by the audience and panel.
what also happened is if griffin did make a small valid point e.g. english not being on the census form/you wouldn't tell a maori there's no such thing as an indiginus people/successive governments have fucked up immigration policy it gets washed over and ignored as blindly racist,which while the motivation might be the actual statements can stand alone as not being racist i feel. which is exactly the sort of stuff the bnp lives off as they can show it as a witch hunt,take a small incident and somehow extrapolate it to the point of the country going to hell in a handbasket, and fel their persecution complex.

also for those who were objecting to griffin being on at least i couyld see his point in the debate. I am yet to figure out what bobbi greers was last night. she contributed nothing except for some poor attempts at humour.

btw i didn't mean that as though the whole show was in this manner.
for the most part they let nick griffin talk himself into a huge hole.
but there were about two 10minute periods where it became slightly farcical and it took away from it in my opinion.
so about 45 minutes of him looking a dick and 20 minutes of the politicians and crowd engaging in competitive disgust

and yet on other issues he wants nothing to do with Europe. They need to make up their minds.

I thought NG was pretty crap really. He was stuffed on most issues, kept denying that he had said things when clearly he had. When it got onto the Holocaust and the KKK he looked ridiculous especially when he said the KKK were a none violent. When he said indigenous people of the UK he again looked stupid. I could go on. Generally he looked poor and I am pleased the BB let him on as it served it's purpose.
I loved Bonnie by the way.

My two pennies worth:

I was glad it took place. I don't think a broadcaster has the right to decide whether or not we hear the views of a democratically elected party.

Equally, I was glad those protesters turned out. I would have been sad if nobody had protested about it. Democracy works both ways.

Thoght Griffin came across as wooly, confused and fairly dim, which I was pleased about. Obviously not used to having to argue his point - probably because he hasnt been involved in QT type debates - or any genuine political debate, really - and is only used to preaching to the converted at his sordid little party meetings.

I wished the other panelists had been more rigorous in their critiques of the BNP's policies, rather than trying to score political points by talking about their own 'wonderful' policies all the time (rather naive of me, I suppose).

I thought the questions / comments from the audience were weak. Wished some more intelligent, reasoned debate had taken place (guess it's hard for people to contain their venom when they are just a few feet away from such a fascist bastard).

I thought Baronness Warsi made some great points (for a Tory!) but went right off her when Dimbleby exposed her as anti-civil partnerships. Limiting the rights of gay people is Ok, then, is it?

I am always disappointed with Bonnie Greer on these types of shows. Great writer/thinker, but unsuited to this type of quick-fire debate. She always waffles and doesn't make any strong points.

And finally: He is even worst scum than I had suspected. I spit on everything he stands for. I would actually rather the Tories got in by taking votes from the disaffected voters who would otherwise vote for the BNP. And it takes a lot for me - a true lefty - to say that.

I've noticed on the BBC webpage that NG is now complaining about the 'lynch mob' last night.

"The National Front are the same as the BNP in case you were wondering. It was a bit like Marathon changing its name to Snickers still the same and still full of fucking nuts"

Chegirl that's a cracking comment. Quote of the week.

Christ this thread - cannot believe the level of vitriol.

I cannot believe I missed this last night, for the first time in 2 months my brother called me (he lives in America) and I thought it would be cruel to say hang on love, can i call you tomorrow I want to watch Question Time! Is it repeated anywhere, or can I watch it on that I-player thingy (do I have to download anything?). Sorry am a dunce. Sorry also for invading thread with my inane warblings

I thought Bonnie Greer was quite charmingly patronising towards NG. He wasn't bright enough to realise it was happening though.

Did you notice she never actually looked at him?

BNP website is claiming a 30% increase in membership interest.

Holocaust Denial is only actually illegal in a number of European Countries. Given how he's on record as denying it at least as recently as 2006 he doesn't seem to be that concerned about it.

On the other hand he could have just said that he was mistaken and that he now disagrees with his past statements and those of other members of his party. It really would have been so simple to make a clear refutation of holocaust denial.

He chose not to, make of that what you will....

I think his last words on the matter were something about radio intercepts and the execution of partisans in Eastern Europe, which is something that he's tried before to explain as being all that the holocaust actually was.

Personally I think it's very relevant as it takes a gross lack of knowledge about recent European history, a hatred of a certain religion and a desire to excuse one of the most evil regimes in history to attempt to deny the holocaust.

I'd think that any party that didn't agree with that sort of person would want them removed from power sharpish. Not so the BNP, once again you can draw your own conclusions.