Out of the frying pan, into the fire
This article is published a little later than I would have hoped, the interweb did a runner on us this weekend. Still, pleased to report it was a lovely weekend regardless.
So last week, I was very much looking forward to Question Time. Not often I can say that, but still, I was quite interested to see how Nick Griffin would appear when confronted by his peers and a decent cross-section of the british public. I’m sorry to say I was disappointed.
First off, I strongly believe the BBC were right to invite and let him appear on Question Time. Over a million people voted for the BNP and it’s in the name of both common sense and democracy to allow him a voice. The quote, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is very apt here. I think we all hoped he’d use his voice to fall over everywhere.
The BBC failed on two accounts, firstly Question Time became all about the ratings and secondly, they failed to get a diverse audience. The brief must surely have been, “Invite as many people who hate him as possible, and let’s show him up as much as possible. No holds barred.” I think they achieved their aim, Question Time viewing figures quadrupled and he was effectively interrupted wherever possible. This however was not what we wanted.
I, and the majority of the public, wanted him to trip himself up. We wanted to hear his agenda, we wanted everyone to hear his agenda. I know we can’t trust the public to vote out John and Edward on X Factor, but I’m sure they can be trusted to spot a racist organisation trying to pass itself off as mainstream.
The show however, continued to be nothing more than an excuse to vent some anger at the self proclaimed, “Most hated man in Britain”. It certainly didn’t disappoint on that front. He was booed, abused and interrupted constantly in a show that seemed to focus entirely on him, missing the key points of immigration and more topical subjects like the postal strike. Fortunately, some bright audience member managed to get a question in on Jan Moir. Jan Moir and Nick Griffin in the same show? It’s like christmas come early.
This treatment of course caused Mr Griffin to complain about having to face a lynch mob and giving more publicity to a party that could have had the first nail in it’s coffin by now. It won’t cause BNP supporters to jump ship, far from it, it’ll cause them to rally around their portly leader.
On the plus side, he certainly won’t have gained any supporters. When he was allowed to speak, he came across as an ignorant, uninformed, homophobic, downtrodden man. His nervous laughter was the starter, his poor arguments the main course and his catty remarks the dessert. Striking out at Jack Straw’s family history will have done him no favours, his views on homosexuality are about 25 years out of date and his attempts at distancing himself from the KKK and Hitler will have fallen on deaf ears, though I will point out that even Hitler, the biggest bastard in history, could manage public speaking.
The stars of the show were, unpredictably, the two female panelists. Baroness Warsi managed to make the Conservatives look in touch with reality, and Bonnie Greer, the only non-politician, came across as articulate, sensible and extremely well informed. She’d done her research, and seriously put the others to shame.
Altogether, it was nothing more than entertainment when it could have been much more, but the evening was redeemed by a busy and funny time on Twitter. With an estimated 40,000 tweets with the hashtag #bbcqt (15 of which were mine) it was a far more active and diverse discussion than Question Time could ever have been.
Shame I can’t say the same about the BBC’s Have Your Say site where 90% of the posts began with “I’m not a racist, but…” – it’s like when I start a sentence with “I don’t think you’re being unreasonable, but…” – well I do think you’re being unreasonable, I’m just being polite.
