HOPE not hate blog

BNP on QT - report

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Thursday, 22 October 2009, 22:12

This is what I have received from a HnH supporter in the audience:

Nick Griffin got a political roasting at Question Time this evening. He squirmed, fidgeted and avoided key questions.

The first question was whether it was fair that the BNP hijacked Churchill. Jack Straw answered first by saying that Britain would not have won WW1 and WW2 without the contribution and sacrifice of black and Asian people. He said that Britain defeated a party based on race like the BNP. The BNP defines itself by race - that distinguishes it from every other party. All other parties have a moral compass. Nazism didn't and neither does the BNP.

Jack Straw talked about a town in France where in the commonwealth war graves there were hundreds of Asians from Blackburn.

Nick Griffin then said Churchill would have been in the BNP. He said that his hostility to Islam described Churchill as Islamophobic by today's standards.

Then came one of the best interventions, surprisingly enough from a member of the audience. Griffin was told that immigrants had made massive contribution to this country. “The BNP is an absolute disgrace. ... You are trying to poison politics. What you stand for is disgusting.”

There was huge applause.

Griffin claimed that many of the quotes attributed to him in the Dominic Carman interview, carried this morning in the Daily Mail, were false. He was pressed by David Dimbleby to explain which were false. Griffin could only say that there were too many to mention.

Griffin lied and lied again. He said that he was never a Nazi. He sidestepped questions about the Holocaust, though he was picked up by Dimbleby for smirking whilst answering the question. “Why are you smirking? It’s not a laughing matter.”

It was at this part that Jack Straw whipped out a copy of Holocaust News and waved it around saying that a leading member of Griffin's party was behind this.

The audience was strongly against Griffin. One person asked him where he should be sent back to, given that he was born here. He went on to say that many people in the audience would happily do a whip round to pay for Griffin and his party to travel to the South Pole. More applause.

Baroness Warsi quoted the BNP’s Head of Publicity, Mark Collett, saying Churchill led us into pointless wars. Bonnie Greer said that Churchill's ancestral past meant he could not have joined the BNP.

A member of the audience said that Enoch Powell's views were identical to those of Griffin. This was echoed by Lib Dem Chris Huhne, who said that the BNP looked for scapegoats. “It’s what Enoch Powell did. We had this in the 1930s against the Jews, in the 1960s against the Blacks and now Griffin against immigrants.”

Griffin repeatedly lied. He claimed that it was he who took the BNP away from its antisemitic and nazi past. He then said “I am the most loathed man among Nazis in Britain.”

Several people made the point that Griffin said one thing in public but another in private. Jack Straw made reference to internal BNP documents about playing down their true views in public. Even Dimbleby mentioned an appearance in the US where Griffin said that “instead of talking about racial purity we talk about identity”.

When pressed about the presence at the meeting of former KKK leader David Duke, Griffin replied: “I shared a platform with a non-violent member of the KKK”. The audience rightly laughed at his stupidity. Griffin went on to say that Duke also regarded him as a sell out.

Griffin was now getting very nervous. In fact, he was even shaking. He was under full attack from all and the more nervous he got the more he smirked and the more stupid he looked.

Jack Straw summed it up. “We have seen that the moment anyone puts an uncomfortable quote to him he wriggles. I have seen his quotes on YouTube. He wants to wriggle out of it.

“The BNP have a manual to tell them how to speak. The language and concepts displiline manual. They are the only party who have to tell their party not to be racist.

“Griffin is the Dr Strangelove of British politics. He tries to control his extremist politics but he can't stop himself like the Peter Sellers character.”

Everyone was falling about laughing.

A member of the audience asked why Griffin hated Islam. He replied that it treats women as second class citizens. He admitted that it had “good points” but does not fit in with fundamental values of British society. “My policy on Islam is a truce with Islam. We should leave countries alone and ensure if Muslims stay here they do so understanding we are a British country. Britain must always remain a fundamentally Christian country.”

Baroness Warsi said that Griffin is a “confused man”, reminding the audience that he shared platform with Abu Hamza and had visited Colonel Gaddafi. “He is a thoroughly deceptive man. He is here to demonise Islam.”

On a question about immigration Griffin attacked the multicultural programme which he claimed had been imposed by the liberal elite. He spoke of “indigenous Britons”.

Straw asked him if he meant “white”.

Griffin replied that the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh were “aborigines”. He said that the majority of the British people were ignored, saying that they felt shut out in our country.

The final question was whether it had been a good week for the BNP. Straw was the last to respond, saying that Nick Griffin was a “fantasising conspiracy theorist”.

And an idiot to boot. The audience almost universally laughed and mocked Griffin at the end.