Barnes, who was supposedly there to present the BNP as a mainstream political party, proceeded to behave like a thug. To make the case for BNP members’ right to express themselves, he set out to prevent anyone else from talking; he ranted and raved so badly that it was impossible for the panellists even to finish their questions to him, let alone get a word in edgeways. He also couldn’t stop himself making anti-Jewish remarks. What sent him over the edge altogether was my charge that the BNP stood outside the values of British society in refusing to uphold the right to equality of black or Asian Britons who the BNP does not regard as properly British. How dare I talk about human rights, he screamed, when I was always going on about Zionism and Israel! To which I responded that he clearly didn’t think I was British either, since in a previous exchange he had said I should be deported to Israel. Now look (if you can stomach it) at how he describes this encounter on his ownblog where he claims that it was I who bafflingly introduced the subject of Israel – and also that he had threatened before the show that he would talk over everyone else if they didn’t give him time to answer. It obviously doesn’t occur to him that anyone who heard the show, or listens to it on the Maze website (at least when the replay facility is working again) would know that this account is demonstrably false. And after all that effort the BNP has made to sanitise itself, too. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.
Reverting To Type
The supposedly more sophisticated British National Party reverted to type last night when it fielded its ‘legal director’ (sic) Lee Barnes to take part in BBC Radio Four’s Moral Maze on which I am a regular panellist. The subject was whether people’s political views should ever disqualify them from a job, an issue that had arisen in the context of the leaking to the press of the BNP’s membership list.
Thursday 27 November 2008
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