Friday 23rd October 2009

I don't agree with many things the Daily Express says, but I can't argue against their front page lead this morning saying "Nick Griffin is a disgrace to humanity".

After all the hype, British National Party leader Nick Griffin was a panellist on Question Time last night and, as predicted, he was intellectually humiliated.
From the opening question, he looked an idiot and way out of his depth up against the likes of MPs Jack Straw and Chris Huhne, as well as playwright Bonnie Greer and Baroness Warsi.
With the BNP recently being criticised for hijacking Winston Churchill for their campaign, Griffin tried to justify this by claiming that if Churchill were alive today he would support the BNP, concluding with some irrelevant rubbish about how, during the Second World War, his Father fought in the RAF, whilst Jack Straws Father was in prison for refusing to fight Hitler.
I could feel my blood boil watching Question Time last night when Griffin smirked repulsively when talking about the Holocaust. Trying to make light of such a serious issue like he did last night makes a complete mockery of politics.
Chris Huhne pointed out that the BNP's ethos is all about finding people to blame and at this stage I couldn't help but think about Hitler and the Nazi party blaming the Jewish people for Germany's difficulties in the 1930s, much like the BNP today blame ethnic minorities for everything wrong with Britain.
Griffin complained that he was misquoted when his outrageous sound bites were brought up, yet these quotes have been recorded. It was obvious that most of his facts were either untrue or completely made up. For example, Griffin claimed a poll revealed that 84% of the British public agreed with his party's immigration policy, yet when he was asked to name this poll he said he couldn't remember. You would've thought he'd be able to remember the name of such a significant poll for his party if it does even exist, which is highly unlikely. What an amateur!
British National Party members can't complain about the hostile reception that Griffin received from the audience and the other panellists last night, as I imagine the majority of BNP members want to create that type of hostile atmosphere for any British individual that isn't white.
At least this whole episode has made the general public interested in politics again. People, particularly the younger generation, who usually couldn't care less about political issues tuned into Question Time last night. This may help produce a better turnout for the next general election. Whilst researching for my dissertation this week, I discovered that the turnout for the 1945 general election was 72.8%, back in the days when the only form of broadcast was radio. Fifty years later in 2005, we had much more access to politics with the emergence of 24 hour news channels and the Internet, yet the turnout for the general election that year was only 61.4%. Perhaps publicity for a a vile, morally corrupt party such as the BNP may be what's needed to engage people in politics again.