BNP leader Nick Griffin to face Bonnie Greer on Question Time

The Times by Patrick Foster and Fiona Hamilton | Tuesday, 13 October 2009 | Click here for original article

The black playwright and author Bonnie Greer is to take on the British National Party leader Nick Griffin on the BBC One programme Question Time next week.

Greer, who was born in America but became a British citizen in 1997, told The Times that she would appear on the panel on October 22. It is understood that the programme is to be recorded at the corporation’s West London headquarters.

The costs of policing the event could run to tens of thousands of pounds. Anti-fascist protesters have said that they have plans to blockade BBC Television Centre, in White City, to prevent Mr Griffin from entering the building.

The local authority, Hammersmith & Fulham Council, has told the corporation that either the Metropolitan Police or the BBC should pick up the bill for security. Corporation sources were adamant that it would not spend the licence fee on policing, saying that it was a matter for the Met.

Greer, 60, will be joined on the panel by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, and a Conservative politician whose name has not yet been confirmed.

The BBC has begun discussions with the council over maintaining order. Stephen Greenhalgh, the council leader, said that it was up to the BBC whom it invited to appear on its programmes. He added: “Our principal concern is the safety and security of residents in the borough. If there is likely to be a demonstration we will liaise closely with security services and all relevant authorities.”

Simon Darby, the deputy leader of the BNP, said he had hoped that the location would be kept secret to prevent protests. “All the lefties are going to kick off, aren’t they? They always do,” he said.

Unite Against Fascism told The Times that if thousands of protesters turned up there were plans to blockade the BBC building. A rally is also planned for the night before the event in Central London. Anti-fascists plan to leaflet BBC workers on the day itself, as they arrive at the White City building in the morning, urging them to stop work for the day in protest.

“If we get hundreds, the aim will be to just protest against his presence,” a spokesman, Anindya Bhattacharyya, said. “We are getting a massive response from students — we are expecting a lot of people. What we don’t want is for this to go smoothly and for Griffin to get a pat on the back and take his place in polite society. We will make sure that the heat is on Griffin, as well as on the BBC for inviting him.”

The BBC has already faced criticism over its policy towards the BNP after the party’s success in the European elections. In recent days it has been pilloried for interviewing two prominent party members on Radio 1, and introducing them only by their first names.

“Mark and Joey”, as the BBC described them, are actually Mark Collett, 28, the BNP’s publicity director, and Joseph Barber, 24, who runs the party’s record label, Great White Records. The corporation has received more than a hundred complaints about the interview, in which the pair said that the England footballer Ashley Cole, who was born in East London, was not “ethnically British”.