If the BBC had wanted Nick Griffin on air simply as a ratings-winner surely it would have made more sense to have him appear on Strictly Come Dancing than Question Time ?
For once, I fear, Mark Thompson is right. He is only following the same rules that allow other small parties to go on the programme. It’s not the BBC’s fault the BNP won 6% of the vote in certain parts of the country at June’s European elections. That’s democracy, folks.
And if you don’t like it and you don’t want them either to get the lifeblood of publicity or votes, then you ban them from the airwaves a la Sinn Fein, or you stop them standing in elections like the Spanish did with Herri Batasuna.
The question that hasn’t left my head since Griffin’s Question Time appearance first came to light is, why would we want to reason with fascists anyway ? When it comes to discussions with the far right, I’m with Woody Allen’s character in Manhattan; baseball bats are a better weapon than words.
Politicians like Peter Hain, an honourable man with a genuine record of fighting racism, who say Griffin shouldn’t be on Question Time, should be hounding their leaders demanding the organisation is proscribed rather than browbeating the BBC.
And those who choose to share a platform with the BNP in the hope that people will be persuaded simply by the power of argument that British fascism is a bad idea, well, they must know they are on a hiding to nothing; preaching to the converted majority while failing to convince the minority who may be swayed by the extreme right.
Our political leaders, of all hues, should really be asking themselves how it ever came to this ? How could the BNP garner enough electoral support to even warrant the attention of David Dimbleby ? How is it possible for 1,048 people in Falkirk to go into a voting booth and put their X next to the party’s name at the Euro elections ?
They might find an unwillingness to confront these questions is in direct proportion to their complicity in creating the conditions for an increase in the BNP’s attractiveness.
Two things come to mind. The so-called ‘War On Terror’ and, secondly, the neoliberal-inspired global financial meltdown.
The pathetic attempts of our political leaders to justify imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has amounted to just one argument; if we don’t stop them at source the Muslim extremists will come here and blow us all to bits.
In the misguided eyes of some that has been twisted into young white kids in shopping centres across Britain shouting “Taliban” at any passing Muslim. The fact that a few (less than 12) Muslims living in Britain have actually carried out attacks here has not only made the UK Government’s position seem stronger, it has also negated attempts by the Muslim community to paint the picture as false.
It bears all the hallmarks of a self-fulfilling prophecy; the more we are mired in these wars the more some people will see Muslims as “others”, outsiders not to be welcomed but instead feared. For the politicians to make a strong statement against such logic would undermine their own position, so instead we get ineffective, if well-meant, platitudes that don’t address the problem.
For once, I fear, Mark Thompson is right. He is only following the same rules that allow other small parties to go on the programme. It’s not the BBC’s fault the BNP won 6% of the vote in certain parts of the country at June’s European elections. That’s democracy, folks.
And if you don’t like it and you don’t want them either to get the lifeblood of publicity or votes, then you ban them from the airwaves a la Sinn Fein, or you stop them standing in elections like the Spanish did with Herri Batasuna.
The question that hasn’t left my head since Griffin’s Question Time appearance first came to light is, why would we want to reason with fascists anyway ? When it comes to discussions with the far right, I’m with Woody Allen’s character in Manhattan; baseball bats are a better weapon than words.
Politicians like Peter Hain, an honourable man with a genuine record of fighting racism, who say Griffin shouldn’t be on Question Time, should be hounding their leaders demanding the organisation is proscribed rather than browbeating the BBC.
And those who choose to share a platform with the BNP in the hope that people will be persuaded simply by the power of argument that British fascism is a bad idea, well, they must know they are on a hiding to nothing; preaching to the converted majority while failing to convince the minority who may be swayed by the extreme right.
Our political leaders, of all hues, should really be asking themselves how it ever came to this ? How could the BNP garner enough electoral support to even warrant the attention of David Dimbleby ? How is it possible for 1,048 people in Falkirk to go into a voting booth and put their X next to the party’s name at the Euro elections ?
They might find an unwillingness to confront these questions is in direct proportion to their complicity in creating the conditions for an increase in the BNP’s attractiveness.
Two things come to mind. The so-called ‘War On Terror’ and, secondly, the neoliberal-inspired global financial meltdown.
The pathetic attempts of our political leaders to justify imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has amounted to just one argument; if we don’t stop them at source the Muslim extremists will come here and blow us all to bits.
In the misguided eyes of some that has been twisted into young white kids in shopping centres across Britain shouting “Taliban” at any passing Muslim. The fact that a few (less than 12) Muslims living in Britain have actually carried out attacks here has not only made the UK Government’s position seem stronger, it has also negated attempts by the Muslim community to paint the picture as false.
It bears all the hallmarks of a self-fulfilling prophecy; the more we are mired in these wars the more some people will see Muslims as “others”, outsiders not to be welcomed but instead feared. For the politicians to make a strong statement against such logic would undermine their own position, so instead we get ineffective, if well-meant, platitudes that don’t address the problem.
It’s easy for the like of the BNP to fill the gap with their hate. In a clever role reversal they suggest if we didn’t have so many Asian people here, spongers some of them, then we wouldn’t have so many problems dealing with the fuzzy-wuzzies abroad. And some people buy it because the counter reasoning is not just weak but undermined by the position of those making it.
If we mix in a recession and unemployment, short-time working, financial misery then the right-wing extremists can again rub their hands with glee. Because our leaders refuse to tackle the cause of all this misery, the bankers and international capitalists.
Instead they get our money to help them make more money, while the economy shows little sign of substantive recovery. And the BNP gets a double whammy; look, they say, the Government’s doing nothing to stop this greed, and while you’re sitting on the dole some Polish guy’s coming over here getting work and claiming benefits for his wife and kids. Some will make the connection and agree with Griffin and his cohorts.
The failure lies with the mainstream parties. If we get a sensible foreign policy then one line of BNP propaganda is pulled from under them. Should we have a Government committed to economic fairness then another argument is shut off. But it doesn’t happen. And they compound their errors by mistaking diversity for equality.
Polish and Pakistani people can come here and live and work and enjoy life and, by and large, they do so. Nothing in the law stops them. They achieve it through hard work and a sense of self-fulfilment. Ask them whether they need special attention from the state to help them and they will say no. Inquire as to whether the whole raft of diversity and equal opportunities legislation makes much difference to their lives, the answer will generally be negative. Self-help, in the form of ethnic support groups, generally suffices.
And yet positive discrimination is where most politically-inspired anti-racism initiatives take shape. Equality legislation in the field of race has not ended racism nor is it likely to, at least any time soon. And yet its very existence is the rod the far right uses most effectively to beat anti-racist campaigners over the head with.
But then again, how can our main parties argue that we should treat all people who live here equally, regardless of ethnicity, when we put the rich on a pedestal ? Surely their inability to create a more equal society in terms of wealth is a breeding ground for the kind of resentment of “others” that breeds the racism they want to try and eliminate ?
If we tackle the rich, take a strong stand against bankers’ bonuses by capping them, make the very wealthy pay more tax, stop large companies avoiding their fair share of the burden, then we can pour some revenues back into the country’s coffers and strengthen the public services that are funded by all our contributions.
We might then start feeling better about ourselves and, you never know, stop worrying about the “others” in our midst, a phantom really, but an economically and socially-based one that is doing us lots of harm. It’s a better option, surely, than going on the telly to say Nick Griffin is a bad man.
If we mix in a recession and unemployment, short-time working, financial misery then the right-wing extremists can again rub their hands with glee. Because our leaders refuse to tackle the cause of all this misery, the bankers and international capitalists.
Instead they get our money to help them make more money, while the economy shows little sign of substantive recovery. And the BNP gets a double whammy; look, they say, the Government’s doing nothing to stop this greed, and while you’re sitting on the dole some Polish guy’s coming over here getting work and claiming benefits for his wife and kids. Some will make the connection and agree with Griffin and his cohorts.
The failure lies with the mainstream parties. If we get a sensible foreign policy then one line of BNP propaganda is pulled from under them. Should we have a Government committed to economic fairness then another argument is shut off. But it doesn’t happen. And they compound their errors by mistaking diversity for equality.
Polish and Pakistani people can come here and live and work and enjoy life and, by and large, they do so. Nothing in the law stops them. They achieve it through hard work and a sense of self-fulfilment. Ask them whether they need special attention from the state to help them and they will say no. Inquire as to whether the whole raft of diversity and equal opportunities legislation makes much difference to their lives, the answer will generally be negative. Self-help, in the form of ethnic support groups, generally suffices.
And yet positive discrimination is where most politically-inspired anti-racism initiatives take shape. Equality legislation in the field of race has not ended racism nor is it likely to, at least any time soon. And yet its very existence is the rod the far right uses most effectively to beat anti-racist campaigners over the head with.
But then again, how can our main parties argue that we should treat all people who live here equally, regardless of ethnicity, when we put the rich on a pedestal ? Surely their inability to create a more equal society in terms of wealth is a breeding ground for the kind of resentment of “others” that breeds the racism they want to try and eliminate ?
If we tackle the rich, take a strong stand against bankers’ bonuses by capping them, make the very wealthy pay more tax, stop large companies avoiding their fair share of the burden, then we can pour some revenues back into the country’s coffers and strengthen the public services that are funded by all our contributions.
We might then start feeling better about ourselves and, you never know, stop worrying about the “others” in our midst, a phantom really, but an economically and socially-based one that is doing us lots of harm. It’s a better option, surely, than going on the telly to say Nick Griffin is a bad man.
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