BBC defends BNP (British National Party) move amid protest

[pampango]

Source: 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 its "responsibility of due impartiality".

Cabinet minister Peter Hain had asked the BBC to rethink its invitation to the whites-only political party.

Ex-London Mayor Ken Livingstone said the BBC would bear moral responsibility for any "spike" in racist attacks. ... 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.

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.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8319596.stm

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The British National Party is, of course, the whites-only, anti-immigration party. The BBC is allowing Nick Griffin, the BNP's chairman, to participate in their political discussion show, Question Time, based on the fact that the party won a couple of seats in the European Parliament in the recent European elections and, therefore, has a degree of "legitimacy" as a political party.

Seems like the classic choice between letting a fringe neo-Nazi party get publicity and hopefully expose themselves as the racists they are or prevent them from publicizing their platform in the hope that will weaken their party.

[T_i_B]

1. Won't be watching. Fed up with the hype.

[LeftishBrit]

9. Unfortunately, the real 'hype' was the BBC treating them as a legitimate party

Once they invited them, that was in itself giving them publicity. If it was a tiny meeting somewhere, I would agree with not giving the BNP the attention they're seeking; but once it's reached this point, I think that the complaints and protests against it are healthy.

[Capt. America]

2. It would be nice if American media covered 3rd parties, even the racist ones.

[Jim Sagle]

5. No, it wouldn't be so nice.

[LeftishBrit]

8. Be careful what you wish for...

[harmonicon]

3. of course they have to let them on

If only the US media was so impartial.....

I don't think you have to worry about the BNP exposing themselves as racists - their voters know that they're racists, and that's why they vote for them. I can understand people from other parties being angry about this, but it's - in part - their own damn fault for not educating the public to not vote for these assholes, to not be racists, for failing to alleviate feelings of desperation which make people turn to desperate measures, etc.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. There are shocking numbers of BNP voters who *claim* not to be racist

and that they just vote for them "because they make sense" or "no-one else cares about us". I think some of them actually believe they're not racist either. Some of their voters are anti-Muslim, and they'll claim it's only that which gets them to vote BNP, and that it's not 'race'.

[pampango]

7. I wonder what in the BNP's policies "makes sense" to those voters.

http://bnp.org.uk/policies

Anti-immigration seems to be the number 1 policy of the BNP. Interesting that some of these BNP voters can be anti-Muslim (being anti-immigrant would be a more "acceptable" way to express that) and say it's not about race. I wonder how popular Indian immigrants, most of whom would not be Muslim) are with these same voters.

[LeftishBrit]

10. Indian immigrants are definitely not popular with them!

Neither are Afro-Caribbaean immigrants. Though not being white is the biggest crime, even white immigrants, currently mainly East Europaeans, are a target. And, though the leadership pretends otherwise, antisemitism is still common among the BNP rank and file.

Basically any form of xenophobia is par for the course with the BNP.

[provis99]

18. is it true the BNP is also anti-Celtic?

I remember hearing BNP supporters calling George Galloway's radio show complaining they wanted the Scots and Irish to go back where they came from!:silly:

[T_i_B]

21. Anti-Irish and Anti-Catholic yes

They want to make Southern Ireland part of the UK again, even though they are very anti-Irish.

[LeftishBrit]

24. They are anti-Irish; but anti-Scottish prejudice is not a typical BNP prejudice

However, the type of person who supports the BNP is generally full of prejudices, so that these may include prejudices that are not specific party 'policies'.

The English Democrats (who have no connection with American Democrats) are a smaller fringe-party, who are both anti-immigrant and anti-Scottish! Actually they seem to have the attitude satirized by Flanders and Swann that 'The rottenest bits of this island of ours/ We've left in the hands of three unfriendly powers. Consider the Irishman, Welshman or Scot/ You'll find he's a stinker as likely as not!'; but the Scots seem to attract particular bile from the English Democrats.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

19. At least from what I've gleaned from discussions with BNP sympathizers

their complaints are two-fold. On the one hand, they're opposed to the idea of importing more low-skill workers, which, depending on your perspective, might make sense (after all, unemployment is already high).

Coupled with this, and what seems to be the bigger issue for them, is their opposition to what they feel is an attack on Britain's culture - by which they mean "white, Christian, and strong nationalistic". Britain is having an identity crisis right now and when you see Muslim extremists calling for Sharia law to be implemented in England, or mocking returning soldiers (as they did in another widely publicized incident several months back), it isn't hard to figure out why the BNP is seeing a boost right now. When the people are at a loss as to what it means to be British, the lunatic fringe on either side wins out.

[pampango]

20. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that a far right party used people's legitimate concerns

to promote their rw agenda.

The BNP has a 15-point policy guide at their website.

http://bnp.org.uk/policies

"1. IMMIGRATION – time to say ENOUGH!

On current demographic trends, we, the native (white) British people, will be an ethnic minority in our own country within sixty years.

We will abolish the ‘positive discrimination’ schemes that have made white Britons second-class citizens. We will also clamp down on the flood of ‘asylum seekers’, all of whom are either bogus or can find refuge much nearer their home countries."

Notice their immigration policy relies on a racial argument, not an economic one. Relax, Nick, caucasians will be a minority in the US in a lot less than 60 years. Besides it's nothing to worry about. What difference does it make?

On immigration the BNP sounds like, but has a much more dangerous agenda than, the Know Nothing party in the 1850's in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_nothing_party

"The Know Nothing movement was a nativist American political movement of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to U.S. values and controlled by the Pope in Rome. Mainly active from 1854 to 1856, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization, though its efforts were met with little success."

The platform of the American Party (the Know Nothings' political party) called for, among other things:

"* Severe limits on immigration, especially from Catholic countries (Sounds like the BNP, except it wants NO immigration - indeed repatriation - and Muslims, not Catholics, are their concern.
* Restricting political office to native-born Americans (The BNP wants to restrict jobs to native-born AND white English and undoubtedly doesn't want immigrants and non-whites in political office either.)
* Mandating a wait of 21 years before an immigrant could gain citizenship (The BNP takes the Know Nothings a step better - no citizenship at all for immigrants, indeed a quick trip back to their home country or that of their parents or grandparents.)
* Restricting public school teachers to Protestants
* Mandating daily Bible readings in public schools
* Restricting the sale of liquor"

I hope the BNP dies out as quickly as the American Party did, but that is probably wishful thinking.

[harmonicon]

14. almost exactly the same could be said of Republican voters (nt)

[Odin2005]

23. I suspect many are not necessarily racist but have still bought into the "Eurabia" hysteria.

Or that they are so ignorant about their own prejudices that they don't even realize they are racist.

[Dutch]

13. Some people vote for them just to give the major parties the finger

This is the main reason why, as I've often argued here, the pariah status the BNP are accorded by the political and media establishment unfortunately tends to work to their advantage. Which is one of the reasons the BBC are right to have them on, the main one being that, unfortunately, their 6% of the vote and 2 MEPs won at the last euro elections does, on democratic principle, entitle them to a certain seat at the table. Plus the fact that the BNP have, under court pressure, agreed to change their discriminatory membership policy (personally I suspect Griffin is glad to be able to drop this embarrasing and indefensible membership policy in such a way that he can tell his even more unabashedly racist/fascist footsoldiers that he's only doing so because "establishment" forces have made him).

If Griffin comes out with any more extaordinary outbursts such as the one earlier in the week comparing British generals to Nazi war criminals, this appearance will do him considerably more harm than good. On the other hand, the BNP will probably regard the possibility of anti-fascist protestors somehow managing to seriously disrupt the event as the ideal outcome for them, further allowing them to push this narrative of themselves as persecuted tellers of truths that the powerful don't want the man in the street to hear.

[harmonicon]

15. those people are still uneducated idiots

I know people who are going to vote Lib Dem in part as a protest vote, which makes some sense - people could also vote for Greens or a smaller party to lodge a protest. Whatever their reason for doing it, people who vote for the BNP know what they're getting, and it's not non-racist.

[T_i_B]

6. Question Time: protesters breach police cordon

Oh dear. Talk about counter-productive.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6408411/BNP-on-BBCs-Question-Time-protesters-breach-police-cordon.html

About 30 people managed to get past police lines during struggles with officers drafted in to protect the entrance to Television Centre in White City, west London.

Some appeared to have gained entry to the building where they were pursued by police.

About 50 officers were deployed to police the demonstration

Scores of protesters converged on Television Centre ahead of the filming of the programme, which was due to be screened on BBC1.

[pampango]

12. Sounds like they arrested some of the 30 and removed the rest.

"Mr Griffin accused the protesters of "attacking the rights of millions of people to listen to what I've got to say and listen to me being called to account by other politicians", adding: "It really is a disgraceful thing."

But Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism accused the BBC of "rolling out the red carpet" to Mr Griffin and said his appearance on the flagship discussion programme "will lead to the growth of a fascist party" and promote violence against ethnic minorities. "

"Speaking before the violence erupted, one of the protesters, Francis Pilling, 47, who works with immigrants and asylum seekers, said: "I'm here because I'm a committed anti-racist. We have to learn the lessons of history - we've seen what can happen when fascists gain strength.""

"Some high profile Labour politicians - including cabinet ministers Peter Hain and Alan Johnson - have said they opposed the BBC decision to allow the anti-immigrant party a place on Question Time."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8321157.stm

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. Sounds like what we would get if they tried to enforce the fairness doctrine

[LeftishBrit]

16. Well, I did see it...

As I said on the UK forum:

My perception was that Griffin was made to look like a fool and a liar, and that being on the programme may have done him more harm than good. I hope so; I realize that sometimes publicity in itself can increase popularity, but the audience members seemed to be running rings around him, and he seemed constantly to contradict himself. My favourite was the proposal from an audience member that he and his friends could club together to pay for the 'repatriation' of Griffin et al to the suitably colourless environment of the South Pole.


We shall see whether his revolting party's support goes up or down after this.

[KakistocracyHater]

17. I hope so too

it seems damned if you do & the same if you don't, if race-based physical attacks occur when they win...is this against the law in the UK? Christians attack women's health clinics here & it is against the law, but it hasn't stopped them completely; I'm hoping people wake up to the fact that racism hurts everyone, automatic qualification based on race encourages incompetence & corruption on the favored race, & usually jail-time & nearly inescapable poverty for the hated race, if you can't get a job you don't stop needing to eat. Ugly & complex problem of humanity.

[Odin2005]

22. I say give these Fascists enough rope to hang themselves with.