Joel Weiner, 17, tells how he seized the chance to catch out Nick Griffin

The Times by Patrick Foster | Saturday, 24 October 2009 | Click here for original article

The schoolboy from northwest London who prompted laughter at Nick Griffin’s response on Holocaust denial told yesterday how he grabbed his chance to challenge the British National Party leader.

Joel Weiner, 17, whose father is a Rabbi, told The Times that he applied for a seat in the audience a year ago, before he knew that Mr Griffin was going to be on the panel. He was contacted for interview by the BBC out of the blue, on Wednesday, the day before the recording. Joel, an A-level student at the Jews’ Free School, in Brent, said: “They gave me a ten-minute phone interview, and asked me about my politicial affiliations — it was as if they were checking I wasn’t going to try and run down to the front and hit Griffin.”

Having been told by the BBC to bring his passport and to expect protests, Joel was ushered through a side door and escorted to the studio, where he found an audience united against the BNP leader. He said: “There was a spirit of camaraderie in the room that people were able to put politics to one side and unite against Griffin.”

Twenty minutes into the programme, he got his chance.

“Dimbleby didn’t actually point at me, but at the guy next to me,” he said. “But I butted in. I had gone through the words in my head several times before but when Dimbleby actually pointed at me my mind went blank and I just blurted it out.” He said: “Winston Churchill put everything on the line so that my ancestors wouldn’t get slaughtered in the concentration camps. But here sits a man who says that that’s a myth, just like the flat world was a myth. How could you say that?”

Mr Griffin’s stuttering answer, that he was no longer a Holocaust denier, but European law prevented him from answering, was met with disbelief.

Joel said: “Griffin is a compulsive liar. He’s a disgusting, abhorrent man. I’m glad that he said he doesn’t deny the Holocaust, but I know he was lying. He only did it to defend himself, to appease the crowd by sounding mainstream.”

“I don’t think the show was skewed against him. I think it showed what the public really think, that they are overwhelmingly against him. He had plenty of opportunities to put his view across.”