Morning:
5°c
Nick Griffin is not a sympathetic man. He completely lacks charisma and he doesn't speak persuasively.
His manner is freakish. He can't stop himself from grinning and giggling inappropriately. He's quite shaky and he licks his lips nervously.
His whole appearance is against him. He has slab cheeks and flabby jowls. Moreover, like Wackford Squeers, he has but one eye, when the popular prejudice runs in favour of two.
He also leads a wholly disreputable party, has a conviction for inciting racial hatred and is on record as having said many unforgiveable things, which he now implausibly denies having said.
Yet it was impossible to watch this grotesque edition of Question Time and not feel some little tinge of sympathy for him, nonetheless.
For this was not a political discussion programme but a show trial from start to finish.
There was only one question asked that was not about Griffin's own record and the policies of the BNP — about whether or not Jan Moir's column about Stephen Gateley's death should have been published.
But even this was soon converted into an attempt to convict Griffin of homophobia.
Mostly, this was just a carefully planned, non-stop kicking.
The other panellists had all come prepared with incriminating quotes from Griffin's past and his party's website and when they flagged, Dimbleby authoritatively weighed in with a reference.
Proceedings started with an overlong speech by Jack Straw about the contribution of black and Asian people in the Second World War. Thereafter there was no let-up in the attack.
Only when the panel were asked if the Government's immigration policies had helped the rise of the BNP was there any discussion of an issue, all the parties acknowledging stricter controls were necessary, although they would not, they said, “pull up the drawbridge”.
But there was no acknowledgement of the grim possibility that it was the BNP that forced the main parties to address the topic more seriously.
None of the panel even looked at Griffin at all, as if to do so would confer upon him legitimacy he didn't deserve.
Not content with that snub, Bonnie Greer, sitting next to him, took things a little further by striking a series of dramatic postures indicative of her utter horror at his mere proximity.
There was a strange circus atmosphere to the proceedings altogether.
Many in the audience were obviously excited at participating in this drubbing, beaming with pleasure when they got to ask a question, whooping with delight when a good blow was landed.
Griffin didn't answer coherently about why he had denied the Holocaust in the past.
Asserting that he didn't have a conviction for Holocaust denial, he actually smirked and Dimbleby caught him at it, demanding: “Why are you smiling, it's not a particularly amusing issue?”
When Jack Straw called him “the Dr Strangelove of British politics”, he chuckled weirdly too.
After seeing this, you wouldn't trust him to tell you the truth about what he had for breakfast.
There was an ugliness to the whole event too. On the radio, Any Questions invites you to listen to what people actually have to say.
Its TV derivative, Question Time, turns an apparently similar set-up into theatre for the mob.
What went on inside this studio was not, in the end, much more advanced than what was going on outside.
Reader views (11)
very good piece mr sexton...
bbc should be ashamed of this excuse for an open debate !!
- Rod Mccallum, nottingham...england..i think.., 28/10/2009 02:42
Report abuse
It was a show trial and if anything it has probably increased support for Nick Griffin. I watched the show to see a good debate - there was none - it was too one-sided to be called a debate. And it's always generally sickening to see politicians taking the moral high-ground, so 2-faced! Even Bonnie Greer, who had some great moments, could have come across better had she had actually looked her arch-enemy in the eyes.
Good article.
- Veronica, London, 26/10/2009 09:05
Report abuse
Last night was an absolute disgrace,the BBC would do better by deleting last nights performance and pretend it never happened,Dimbleby was not very professional at all,allowing the audience to abuse panelists in a way I have never seen before.
- Davey_Bouy, Chertsey UK, 23/10/2009 16:45
Report abuse
I did not see the show, but I was in the audience of the first ever live Question Time, so am familiar with the atmosphere. From the comments posted, I agree with David Sexton - it sounds like it was a left liberal Pc swarmy showtrial, despite what one thinks/feels about the BNP, just another demonstration of democracy in action under nu pc Labour. Labour has engendered support for the BNP via their misgiuded mass immigration policies, not because Brits are inately racist
- Laurence Floyd, London and North Cyprus, 23/10/2009 16:10
Report abuse
No, Barry from Welwyn, he didn't. Leftist, spitty-mouth ranting is no different from right-wing spitty-mouth ranting and does not an argument win. He was not allowed to properly respond to many questions from the audience (and Dumbleby allowed the other panellists to answer points specifically put to Griffin and to ramble on at length, (Man of) Straw especially yet cut Griffin down after barely a sentence) and the one poignant question re: immigration, i.e. if unemployment is so bad, why do we need more people? was simply brushed aside as an inconvenience.
It was meant to be a debate (implicit to which is an impartial chair) and it certainly was not. And an officially sanctioned kicking is still a kicking, in my book anyway.
- Hb, Rochford, Essex, 23/10/2009 16:09
Report abuse
To all those BNP supporters and indeed Nick Griffin, who feel that last nights Question Time was nothing short of a public lynching, I say nothing could be further from the truth. In the closed world of the far right, where everybody looks and thinks the same, the danger of reason and real debate is that you will have to give an account of what you believe and the risks of offending and being pilloried are always going to be there. Last night, Nick Griffin entered the real world, where shallowness and pecularity of his views were exposed for what they are. Had he the strength of his convictions and smidgeon of empathy or humanity, he would have fought his corner with greater integrity and equanimity.
- Patrick, London, 23/10/2009 15:09
Report abuse
The BBC shot themselves in the foot. Having taken the brave decision to invite Griffin on, they then covered their Lefty rear ends by loading the audience and panel.
No real debate occurred and in the true British spirit of supporting the under dog, dare I say Griffin garnered some sympathy.
Personally I though this might be an opportune moment to address some of the underlying issues that concern mainstream voters who feel very let down by the main political parties.
Sadly we are left feeling as frustrated as ever.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 23/10/2009 14:58
Report abuse
I agree with David Sexton.
The worst person to come out of this was jack Straw who looked very old and stupid. They did not want to debate with Griffin, just show their own importance and worthiness. It did not do them any favours at all and left Nick Griffin as a victim. I felt very uncomfortable indeed, especially as IRA supporters and fundamentalist muslim hate specialists get away with everything.
- Christine, London, 23/10/2009 14:40
Report abuse
How many different ways do you want it?
The press is up in arms that the government might try to stop the BBC airing this programme - "let him speak and allow him to show the world what he really is" cry the champions of free speach.
OK, he got that chance in spades and now all of a sudden he's poor old picked upon Mick Griffin.
If he had just been allowed to comment with no pressure on him, he would have trotted out his tried and tested, sanitised version of what he stood for, but under pressure he came across as what he really is - an ignorant bigot and bully.
How much freedom for debate do you think he and his kind will allow if, God forbid, they ever got to power.
I'm sorry David, but to my mind he got of lightly.
- Barry, Welwyn England, 23/10/2009 11:58
Report abuse
This is the fairest article I've seen on this subject yet. Well done David Sexton!
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx, 23/10/2009 11:51
Report abuse
Agree. Like it or not (and I don't personally) Griffin is an elected MEP and purely on that basis alone deserved a minimum level of impartiality from the BBC. Question Time last night resembled a Soviet era show trial with a pre-ordained outcome. Profoundly undemocratic, and very worrying that someone who speaks a different language to the left-liberal PC consensus of today is so villified.
- Tony, Nottingham, 23/10/2009 11:10
Report abuse
