Friday, 23 October 2009

Griffin: Unfair that Question Time was filmed in 'ethnically cleansed' London

• Capital is no longer British, says BNP leader
• No place for you here, says Boris Johnson


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Nick Griffin said today he was the victim of a "lynch mob" audience drawn from a city that had been "ethnically cleansed" and was "no longer British".

The BNP leader's comments prompted Boris Johnson, the mayor ofLondon, to say that there was "no place here" for Griffin or his party as he urged Londoners to reject his "extremist and offensive views".

Fellow Question Time panelist Bonnie Greer admitted today she had to restrain herself from slapping Griffin last night, before adding she was glad she hadn't because he was "totally trounced" on the show.

Griffin vowed to lodge a complaint at the "unfair" way the Question Time programme was produced, despite the BNP's claims that his appearance sparked the "biggest single recruitment night in the party's history".

Griffin claims he was treated unfairly by the panel and audience and complained that the show, held at BBC Television Centre in London, was broadcast from a city which had changed beyond all recognition because of what he called uncontrolled immigration.

"That was not a genuine Question Time; that was a lynch mob," he told Sky News.

He went on: "That audience was taken from a city that is no longer British ... That was not my country any more. Why not come down and do it in Thurrock, do it in Stoke, do it in Burnley?

"Do it somewhere where there are still significant numbers of English and British people [living], and they haven't been ethnically cleansed from their own country."

He added: "There is not much support for me there [in London], because the place is dominated by ethnic minorities. There is an ethnic minority that supports me: the English. But there's not many of them left."

The Conservative mayor swiftly hit back on behalf of Londoners: "Nick Griffin is right to say London is not his city. London is a welcoming, tolerant, cosmopolitan capital which thrives on its diversity. The secret of its long-term success is its ability to attract the best from wherever they are and allow them to be themselves – unleashing their imagination, creativity and enterprise. The BNP has no place here and I again urge Londoners to reject their narrow, extremist and offensive views at every opportunity."

The BNP has exploited concerns about immigration among the white working class in some of London's poorer areas to gain representation on several councils in the capital.

It holds a seat on the capital-wide London Assembly and has 12 seats on Barking and Dagenham council, making it the second biggest party there after Labour, with six other council seats across three London boroughs.

The BNP leader insisted that his performance last night was "fine", despite it being panned by the press, with his own party officialsadmitting today that their leader had made a less than impressive showing on last night's show as he was repeatedly criticised by fellow panelists and jeered by a hostile audience.

Greer, the playwright and critic who sat next to Griffin on the Question Time panel, told the Daily Mail Griffin had been "trembling like a leaf" throughout his appearance.

Sitting next to him was "probably the weirdest and most creepy experience of my life", she said.

"I spent the entire night with my back turned to him. At one point, I had to restrain myself from slapping him. But it was worth it because he was totally trounced."

The BNP leader said he needed a second chance on the BBC flagship programme. "People wanted to see me and hear me talking about things such as the postal strike. One or two questions about what a wicked man I am, fair enough, but the whole programme – it was absurd. Let's do it again but do it properly this time."

He also said that he wanted to challenge justice secretary Jack Straw, who was on last night's panel, to a one-to-one debate on the issues of the day, and called on David Cameron to disassociate himself from the protests outside BBC Television Centre where the programme was recorded.

A spokeswoman for the Tory party leader said Cameron, who supports the campaign aims of anti-fascist groups, said he had no intention of responding to Griffin.

Griffin's thumbs-down on last night was not shared by his French counterpart Jean-Marie Le Pen, who predicted today that the BBC's decision to invite Griffin on the show would lead to a surge in support for the party.

The BNP later today posted a message on its website claiming that 3,000 people registered to sign up as members once a current recruitment freeze - introduced in response to legal action over the party's discriminatory membership rules - has been lifted.

"This figure represents the single largest block of new membership expressions of interest ever, and will, once formally signed up, have boosted party membership by nearly 30%."

Earlier today, Le Pen, who has previously described his own appearance on a similar programme in France in the early 1980s as "the hour that changed everything" for his party, told the London Evening Standard: "Small fish become big so long as God gives them life. All political groups have started as marginal before becoming important."

Le Pen – a member of the European parliament, like Griffin – attacked the "scandalous" protests over the BBC's decision, which he said presented a "narrow idea of democracy". "Trying to stop an elected individual from expressing himself on mainstream media appears scandalous," he told the Standard.

Le Pen's own popularity rose after he appeared on the French programme L'heure de Verité in 1984, before which he had been virtually boycotted by the French media. Voting intentions for the Front National in the European elections in June that year subsequently doubled, from 3.5% to 7%, and in the election itself the FN scored 11% (2.2m votes). A Figaro-Magazinepoll conducted after the broadcast showed that the proportion of those with a "positive opinion" of Le Pen rose to 13%, and then rose again to 17% by the summer.

He came second in the French presidential race in 2002, ahead of Lionel Jospin, the former prime minister.

Le Pen said today: "The BBC is conducting itself in a democratic way with regard to the English people. He [Griffin] will reveal his ideas. It's up to the people to judge."

Downing Street said Gordon Brown did not watch last night's edition of Question Time, but he telephoned Straw to thank him for appearing on the programme.

"He very rarely watches Question Time," Brown's spokesman said. "He is often busy on important government matters, finishing paperwork and other government business. He was certainly engaged on government business."

The BBC said that average viewing figures for the programme were almost 8 million – meaning around three times more viewers tuned in than usual.

By midday today, it had received more than 350 complaints following the broadcast.

More than 240 people felt the show was biased against the BNP, while more than 100 of the complaints were about Griffin being allowed to appear on Question Time.

Peter Hain, the Welsh secretary and former anti-apartheid campaigner who attacked the BBC for inviting Griffin on the programme, denounced the broadcast. "The BBC should be ashamed of single-handedly doing a racist, fascist party the biggest favour in its grubby history," he said.

"Our black, Muslim and Jewish citizens will sleep much less easily now the BBC has legitimised the BNP by treating its racist poison as the views of just another mainstream political party when it is so uniquely evil and dangerous."

Straw disagreed, saying it had been right to debate the BNP on Question Time, but stressed it was time for the political agenda to move on.

"Mr Griffin was last night exposed as a fantasising conspiracy theorist with some very unpleasant views and no moral compass. But now that he has been exposed for what he is it is time to move on," he said.

"There is no denying that many people are disillusioned with mainstream politics. The imperative now is to engage with them directly and put the extremist BNP sideshow behind us."

The Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, a panelist on the programme, cautioned against writing off the BNP based on Griffin's shaky performance last night.

"The crucial issue is whether anybody who was watching the programme will have emerged from it thinking he is a more credible figure and I don't think that was the case," he told GMTV. "The more difficult issue is the surrounding publicity, where the people who didn't see the programme are actually going to be impressed by the credibility of the BNP as a result, and we will have to wait and see."

The Labour MP Diane Abbott said Griffin should not have been able to appear on the programme.

"It's all very well in the morning to say, 'Oh well, he got smashed,' but in the long run people who are attracted to the BNP will come away saying he was a victim," she said. "When you put the BNP into the mainstream like that they drag people on to their agenda. Everyone is talking about Nick Griffin. The programme has given him unnecessary exposure, unnecessary credibility, and giving more credibility to a fascist party in the middle of a recession is a very dangerous thing."

Griffin was repeatedly pilloried last night when he was dubbed the "Dr Strangelove" of British politics after attempting to claim the mantle of Winston Churchill and struggling to explain his denial of the Holocaust.


Posted by Britannia Radio at 19:25