UAF V BNP at the BBC Television Centre ahead of Question Time

[-:Undertaker:-]

Anti-fascist campaigners are staging a mass protest at BBC Television Centre as British National Party leader Nick Griffin takes part in Question Time.
There are several hundred protesters outside the building, although it is calmer than earlier when about 25 broke through police lines into the BBC.
Inside, Mr Griffin was booed as recording of the flagship political discussion programme got under way. The BBC has defended the programme saying it has a duty to be impartial.

The Metropolitan Police say three protesters have been arrested and three police officers injured in the protests. Television Centre has been "locked down" with staff prevented from leaving to go home and a police helicopter continues to hover overhead. 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.

While everyone has the right to protest peacefully, as we can see here the UAF are not protesting peacefully and when the word 'protesters' is used it doesn't delve into who these people are, as you can see from the flags around the BBC studio they include islamic flags, red flags (indicating socialist/communist involvement) and signs which read 'smash the BNP' (violence).

Griffin should be allowed on as we live in a democracy and his party is elected, whether we agree with them or not. In my view, its not the BNP which is the undemocratic party, its the UAF who are against democracy.

Thoughts, and will you be watching Question Time tonight?

..it starts at 10:30pm on BBC One

[Niall!]

I love the BNP and all they stand for. Those protesters should go blow up some buildings or something.

[AlexOC]

Just watched it on Catch-Up-TV.

That backfired for the BNP.

[PaulMacC]

Just watched it on Catch-Up-TV.

That backfired for the BNP.

You may think that but in reality it was a huge success, they got some of their policies and manifesto and earned some voters as a result of this. Not to mention they could sue BBC for discriminating against them as Question Time was mainly targeting them.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I think Griffin emerged best from the panel, Labour refused to tackle immigration and illegal immigration, the Conservatives stated they would tackle it but a angry audience member shouted 'then just DO it', the woman from the British Museum kept interrupting Griffin - from what I have seen on the Daily Mail, BBC and the Sun websites', even those who do not support the BNP can see how the panel was biased as the program was changed from being about the BNP/Post Strikes and other issues to being solely about the BNP itself.

I do not see muslim extremists/left wing Labour MP extremists being questioned like Griffin was last night, that was certainly not a fair show.

..it does seem though that now UKIP are stronger, Europe is being forced into the spotlight of the Lib/Lab/Con and now the BNP are stronger, immigration is being forced into the spotlight aswell - all of which is good for politics and democracy.

[HOSKO02]

I watched the show, very interesting.

I was surprised to hear some BNP supporters in the back rows, notable how the camera never turned to focus on them. Nick Griffin came across to me as a babling hypocrite, however, He made some good points when He could catch the other speakers off guard, and the Tories let it in by trying to dodge the immigration policies.

I'm from Lancashire, from which Burnley was mentioned as a constituency of one of the panelists, who explained how He had 'turned' them over and away from BNP support.

However, the population of 'ethnic minorities' in Lancashire is very high, and race riots are common especially in the East of the county. There are a number of public houses in proximity to me there which are frequented by BNP supporters and angry patriots. Coming from a low income area of majorly 'working-class' - it's easy to see how Griffins policies look appealing to them, change is happening too quick in some areas where ethnic minorities have populated in certain areas, and it's understandable that that, alongside recent policies relating to beureocracy and political correctness, leads the white working class to fear/misunderstanding/anger.

I was invited to attent that protest outside the BBC last night with my Socialist Society from my University, and though I support the ideals of Marx and Socialism as a whole, I agree that the BNP as a political party has every right to be given stage on Question Time, what worries me as stated above, is the ignorance of the working classes who need a scapegoat, hence why the BNP has seen unprecedented popularity in the forerun to the next election.

[RandomManJay]

Although I don't agree with literally all of the policies presented by the BNP, I do agree that Nick Griffin did have the right to be on the show and present his and the BNP's views. And although it was oriented around the BNP rather than the actual topics, there were times when they tried to get back on track, but in the end it just wasn't possible. Watched it a couple of hours ago on iPlayer, they should have made the show longer .

[Black_Apalachi]

I watched it but I really don't know what to believe. For example, he was talking about how the English, Scottish and Welsh have always been the people of Britain and so this should be preserved and he said the fact that they are white is irrelevant but everyone else says he's racist because he only wants white people in the UK.

It's really hard to ignore other people's opinions of him and his party and try to find out exactly what he's about for myself.

[alexxxxx]

i personally thought the show was dreadful and focused more on what n griffin did or did not say. Even though i hate him and everything he stands for and I don't respect him or anything i thought that they didn't give him enough time to really say much at all even though j straw had loads of time to say monologues. I was quite dissapointed that i couldn't hear some of his other policies and whatever and see a decent debate. I think his credibility was eroded (probably rightly so) and that it was just grilling him. They dodged the issue about are the mainstream parties dealing with sensitive issues which was disappointing.

[-:Undertaker:-]

A poll on BBC has said that 22% of people asked in a poll would 'seriously consider' voting BNP. Of course this is only a spur of the moment poll, but as shown by UKIP success at two European Parliamentary Elections it isn't impossible to make a big hit. Another poll which was in the Mail showed that when the BNP name wasn't mentioned and their policies were described to people, over 50% of people agreed with them fully - but when the BNP was mentioned as being the party behind this, support dropped to 20% to 30%.

I do think it has done the BNP good last night and did show how everything is tipped against them, however as I have said before; it does seem that with the growth of UKIP and the BNP, both immigration and the European Union are to become top issues in the near future.

On the BBC the theme seems to be the same, and the same on the Sun website and the Mail website, here are some from the BBC website.

im a labour supporter, when i came home from work this morning i watched question time on iplayer and, i couldnt believe what i was seeing, the whole program was just like a kangaroo court it reminded me of my days in the military when, we used to have kangaroo courts,i think people forget that people in this country voted the BNP in,people need to be looking at this government to blame,the whole thing was like a scene from a school playground,the other party members were so unproffessional

..more can be seen here, more or less the same.