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I'm all for him being able to say his piece, and I'm totally against censorship...but I don't like the beeb giving these people the legitimacy that comes with a serious political programme.

Everything about the man makes me get angry.

I'm thinking of trying to reinforce my screen before watching it, I'm likely to start throwing things at him.

Being a racist isn't a political view, it's just being a racist.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

I've been following the recording on Twitter. Rest assured, he comes out of it very badly.

You can already see highlights on bbciplayer.

He fills me with disgust. The only way I would have any kind of debate with him is with a baseball bat.

i say let him show himself to the entire country what a piece of s**t he is...

and then we can lynch and burn him in an ironic way...

he is scum and i wish him an early grave...

I've set it to record. I'll watch it tomorrow when the munchkin's at school. I don't want him hearing daddy say bad words...

But I agree with Iain. The best way to discredit a bigot is to let them talk. People like Nick Griffin are, I'm sure, perfectly able to dig their own holes and jump in voluntarily.

If we silence them, they'll wear that censorship as a badge of honour and use it to recruit the angry and disenfranchised along with their core following of bigots and fools.

Pete

Agreed. And I liked Jack Straw's not-so-subtle suggestion at the end of the programme: "I think this has been a catastrophic week for the BNP, because people will have looked up on YouTube and the internet what the BNP really believe..."

...in other words: "Go and look up on YouTube and the internet what the BNP really believe!"

pcwells wrote:The best way to discredit a bigot is to let them talk. People like Nick Griffin are, I'm sure, perfectly able to dig their own holes and jump in voluntarily.

Once again, I find myself agreeing with Pete.

I only watched the first half an hour of it (I'm going to watch the rest tomorrow) but I came away from it still unsure as to what the BNP believe. Certainly everyone else in the room made it very clear that they thought the BNP were a big bunch of racists, but Griffin himself didn't really elaborate on anything specific.

I think thats the problem whenever they manage to weasel their way on to tv. The audience tend to shout them down and call them names but they themselves never actually have to state what it is they believe. Griffin just sat there smugly grinning, lapping up all the free publicity without having to commit himself to any policies or definite opinions at all. I would have much prefered it if he'd been simply asked: What do the BNP really believe? and then given 5 minutes to share his ideas without being interupted, shouted down or have words put is his mouth.

I don't really think he could actually fill 5 minutes as I really don't think the BNP have any thought out policies and they're just surfing on a wave of publicity, but it would have been much better for the publics understanding if he actually had to be nailed down to an opinion.

Let him say what he thinks and then we'll see him for certain as the ignorant bigot we all suspect him to be. Then we can make the decision to ignore his idiocy, forget all about his stupid backwards party and get on with our lives.

I think the BNP are a disgusting bunch of hate mongering people.

It was them using pictures of Churchill on their ads which really made me laugh at how stupid and ignorant the people really are. Churchill fought against what they believe.

They're policies are discriminative and breach human rights, any other organisation with those sorts of policies would be taken to court. Grrrr I don't like them!

They were taken to court by the equalities commission for not allowing non-white members. Irony is that they probably don't have too many non-white people wanting to sign up.

They (at least used to) want to deport 'non-Brits', even those who were born here...Which has always amused me. Not sure where they want to deport them to.

I'm hoping people do realise how stupid they are, any not just find themselves agreeing.

It was funny when he couldn't stop himself from having a jolly good rant at the end. He gives bigotry a bad name, if that's possible.

The other thing he does which surprised me, was making Jack Straw look good

Watching it on iplayer just now. David Dimbleby handles him really well.

I didn't see the programe but have listened to the debate on Radio 5 over the past week about this.

I'm not a supporter of the BNP or what they stand for but I do think that it was right for the BBC to allow Griffin on Question Time. I also agree with Ian that the best way to deal with these issues is to let them talk themselves out of votes.

From what I've heard this morning there was very little real political debate on the programme which is a shame. This is where I think that the Griffin and the BNP would have really shot themselves in the foot but unfortunately the programme appears to have been one big rant about opposing views on what the people rightly or wrongly perceive the BNP to be about. To a degree, this plays right into their hands.

I'm sure that there were many like myself who weren't totally surprised that the BNP managed to be elected to start with. This is the fault of the other political party's for not properly tackling issues that the wider public want and for the publiic for not turning out to vote for the opposition.

The real way to tackle the BNP is to turn out in droves at election time and vote against them.

Overall, I think that there are far too many misguided people out there who preach one thing and do the opposite. Take the protestors at the BBC yesterday, they will all be in favour of free speach but they don't want the BNP to have the same right. Their actions are short sighted as they often end up favouring the cause they are protesting against.

If you want to effect change for the better, get off your couch and use your democratic right to vote. Lobby your politicians to make them address the issues that you want to see debated and let them know when you're not happy. Vote out the politicians who are more interested in the Westminster gravy train than their constituants.

If you can't be bothered to do that - then don't moan about what you're left with.

dat8962 wrote:I didn't see the programe but have listened to the debate on Radio 5 over the past week about this.

I'm not a supporter of the BNP or what they stand for but I do think that it was right for the BBC to allow Griffin on Question Time. I also agree with Ian that the best way to deal with these issues is to let them talk themselves out of votes.

From what I've heard this morning there was very little real political debate on the programme which is a shame. This is where I think that the Griffin and the BNP would have really shot themselves in the foot but unfortunately the programme appears to have been one big rant about opposing views on what the people rightly or wrongly perceive the BNP to be about. To a degree, this plays right into their hands.

I'm sure that there were many like myself who weren't totally surprised that the BNP managed to be elected to start with. This is the fault of the other political party's for not properly tackling issues that the wider public want and for the publiic for not turning out to vote for the opposition.

The real way to tackle the BNP is to turn out in droves at election time and vote against them.

Overall, I think that there are far too many misguided people out there who preach one thing and do the opposite. Take the protestors at the BBC yesterday, they will all be in favour of free speach but they don't want the BNP to have the same right. Their actions are short sighted as they often end up favouring the cause they are protesting against.

Ifr you want to effect change for the better, get off your couch and use your right to vote. Lobby your politicians to make them address the issues that you want to see debated and let them know when you're not happy. Vote out the politicians who are more interested in the Westminster gravy train than their constituants.

If you can't be bothered to do that - then don't moan about what you're left with.

I don't think I could have said it better myself.

The thing about free speech is that if you are really for it, you also have to allow that same freedom to people you don't agree with, but consequently, it also means with have the freedom to ignore them. It's much better for people to express their appalling views in a public arena where others can explain why those opinions are wrong, than for them only to spread their views in private where they will be uncontested and people may go away thinking that they are actually correct.

it also means with have the freedom to ignore them

A marvelous example and point to make!