It is not often that I write about politics. Much like religion and war it is a topic that can be too explosive to discuss yet recent events have raised my eyebrows on this issue.
For those of you who do not know there is a party based in the UK called the British Nationalist Party (BNP). The British National Party was formed by John Tyndall, co-founder of the National Front, in 1982. He led the BNP until 1999 and died in 2005. Until 2001, the party advocated forced “repatriation” of non-whites. It currently backs an immediate halt to all immigration, and the “voluntary resettlement” of legal immigrants and British citizens of foreign descent to “their lands of ethnic origin”. But its whites-only membership policy has been successfully challenged in court by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Mr Griffin will now have to persuade the membership to ditch what has been one of their core principles. Until recently the party had enjoyed very limited electoral success. But now have two seats in the European Parliament one of which is held by leader Nick Griffin.
The BNP have been invited onto the political debate show, Question Time. Due to the political views that this party holds it has been met with protests and a barrage of complaints towards the BBC. Deputy Director General Mark Byford has said it is not the BBC’s role to censor the BNP as criticism mounts ahead of the party’s Question Time appearance. He said the BNP’s Euro vote meant the BBC had to allow it on as part of it’s “responsibility of due impartiality”. Cabinet minister Peter Hain had asked the BBC to rethink its invitation to the whites-only political party. Even Ex-London Mayor Ken Livingstone said the BBC would bear moral responsibility for any “spike” in racist attacks.
No doubt there is a lot of hatred towards the BNP. I for one cannot understand their policies nor there rule that only white people can join the party. The UK has many ethnicities that make up its population, possibly more than any other European Country. Having a party that bases its fundamental rule of membership is not only outdated it is extremely embarrassing.
Some protesters have already gathered outside BBC Television Centre in London ahead of the appearance of British National Party leader Nick Griffin, who is a Euro MP, on the hour-long flagship BBC political programme Question Time.
Mr Livingstone told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Unlike any other party, when Nick Griffin speaks, or when they get elected in an area, what we see is an increase in racial attacks. He comes on, says his bit, does his bit, but for the angry racist it’s the trigger that turns into an attack. And we first saw this when Enoch Powell made his ‘rivers of blood’ speech, there was a huge surge of attacks on black conductors on our buses.” But Mr Byford told the same programme: “They should have the right to be heard, be challenged, and for the public who take part in Question Time and the viewers to make up their own minds about the views of the BNP. It’s not for the BBC to censor and say they can’t be on.”
Mr Hain’s appeal to the BBC Trust to stop Mr Griffin appearing was rejected on Wednesday. The trust said it was a “question of editorial judgment” whether it was appropriate for the BNP to appear. And BBC director general Mark Thompson, writing in the Guardian newspaper, said the case against having the BNP on Question Time was “a case for censorship”. He said only governments could decide which organisations should be banned from the airwaves. The BBC Trust has asked Mr Thompson to ensure the pre-recorded programme is within BBC guidelines.
The decision to allow Mr Griffin, whose party won two seats in the European Parliament in elections in June, has prompted an outcry among anti-fascist protesters. Mr Thompson argued that where organisations were deemed to be “beyond the pale” they were proscribed and/or banned from the airwaves by – and only by -governments.
Downing Street said on Monday that the prime minister did not oppose the BBC decision to have the BNP on the programme, saying Gordon Brown believed it was important to expose what a party stood for. The BBC has also been defended by the comedian Russell Brand, who resigned from Radio 2 after the row over prank phone calls to the actor Andrew Sachs. Writing in the Sun newspaper, Brand said his former employers were “right to grant a forum” to the BNP and that the audience should be allowed to draw its own conclusions. BNP spokesman Simon Darby said the party would use its own security to get Mr Griffin safely inside the building and there would be no counter-demonstration by the BNP.
And Mr Griffin told The Times: “I thank the political class and their allies for being so stupid. The huge furore that the political class has created around it clearly gives us a whole new level of public recognition.”
I think there is a valid case there. Any political party has the right to be invited to take part in debates no matter if they are on the radio or TV. The BNP will go and TV and hopefully embarrass themselves in the debate that occurs. The audience will be made up of may ethnicities and I hope that Nick Griffin is bombarded with questions that he simply will not be able to answer. The BNP are a poison in British Politics an outdated, out of touch racist gathering that only attract the vote of people who have not considered the alternatives to whoever is in power. A vote for the BNP is a wasted vote in my opinion and by squirming on a live TV debate this could be the embarrassing nail in this political party’s life.