The BBC is now concerned that there is a backlash effect because viewers may have felt that Griffin was being bullied by the liberal panel that went for him in a chorus of outrage.
All done in the name of freedom of speech? No. This spurious argument is wheeled out by those who believe that the best way to deal with a party based on violence and race hate is to debate with them. But that is to completely ignore the entire basis on which they operate. Debates and publicity are part of their strategy to seek respectability – before ramming the fists of their hard core into the faces of the next non white member of our community who crosses them. They have members behind race violence (and convictions to prove it), behind bombings (remember the Admiral Duncan pub terrorist attack on the Gay community in London?) and who engage in internet fantasies about organising race wars and violence against individual anti racists through their ‘Redwatch’ web site.http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=174
To give them a place on a political equivilant of the X Factor may be a good discussion at a BBC Controllers dinner party – but it raises the level of threats of violence against the communities the BNP wishes to ‘send home in body bags’. Was it only a few months ago that Griffin announced that Refugees in boats should have their boats sunk rather than be allowed in the UK?
Denying the BNP a place on the Question Time show was not an attack on freedom of speech – it was a defence of the Black, Asian, Gay and other communities who face the real threat to freedom of speech – the violence inflicted on opponents by the BNP.
No doubt Griffin was exposed on the programme as bigoted, hateful, a liar and low rate in terms of any political skill. But we all knew that. The BBC was not trying to expose and defeat Griffin, it was trying to win viewers and gain profile – even at the expense of those millions of non white Britons who pay their licence fee and may walk the streets with even more caution now that the BNP is being projected as mainstream.
The BBC is a public service. We are all public service providers. We cannot allow our services to become the tools of racist bigots who find gay men kissing ‘creepy’. All our commitments to the people we provide services for are based solidly on notions of equality, fairness and a desire to help. Once politicians from the far right gain power they seek to end this ethos. Services to the poor in inner cities, to the elderly, to young children, to those who need medical care – we strive to offer them on the basis of need, not race or sexuality. The BNP oppose that and that is why as public servants it was particularly sickening to see our public service broadcaster giving Griffin air time. As one young Asian lad interviewed on TV about the decision said – ‘you wouldn’t put Adolf Hitler on Question Time would you?’
It was a blow to all those who oppose racism and the BNP to see them on the BBC. But it is not a massive defeat of any sort. The campaigns against them will continue and will push them back – their vote has being falling again. But no more tax payers money spent on giving Nazis a platform please. Public services serve all the public – black and white – and that includes the BBC
To give them a place on a political equivilant of the X Factor may be a good discussion at a BBC Controllers dinner party – but it raises the level of threats of violence against the communities the BNP wishes to ‘send home in body bags’. Was it only a few months ago that Griffin announced that Refugees in boats should have their boats sunk rather than be allowed in the UK?
Denying the BNP a place on the Question Time show was not an attack on freedom of speech – it was a defence of the Black, Asian, Gay and other communities who face the real threat to freedom of speech – the violence inflicted on opponents by the BNP.
No doubt Griffin was exposed on the programme as bigoted, hateful, a liar and low rate in terms of any political skill. But we all knew that. The BBC was not trying to expose and defeat Griffin, it was trying to win viewers and gain profile – even at the expense of those millions of non white Britons who pay their licence fee and may walk the streets with even more caution now that the BNP is being projected as mainstream.
The BBC is a public service. We are all public service providers. We cannot allow our services to become the tools of racist bigots who find gay men kissing ‘creepy’. All our commitments to the people we provide services for are based solidly on notions of equality, fairness and a desire to help. Once politicians from the far right gain power they seek to end this ethos. Services to the poor in inner cities, to the elderly, to young children, to those who need medical care – we strive to offer them on the basis of need, not race or sexuality. The BNP oppose that and that is why as public servants it was particularly sickening to see our public service broadcaster giving Griffin air time. As one young Asian lad interviewed on TV about the decision said – ‘you wouldn’t put Adolf Hitler on Question Time would you?’
It was a blow to all those who oppose racism and the BNP to see them on the BBC. But it is not a massive defeat of any sort. The campaigns against them will continue and will push them back – their vote has being falling again. But no more tax payers money spent on giving Nazis a platform please. Public services serve all the public – black and white – and that includes the BBC.
>http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/index.php/content/home/suit
