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What is up with his eye??

I thought it was pretty much as I expected it to be. He didn't apply himself very well to the debate as he's not really a politician in the same way that Blair or Old Etonian Tory fuckpig are. Having said that, I don't think the panel were very ruthless at really ramming home the points when he was folundering. Bonnie Greer's motherly impatience was probably the best reaction to him out of all of them.

Sadly, his performance was never going to be the issue. The sad thing is that his party now has more publicity than it did before last night. This is a very bad thing. However, I can't in all good conscience say I believe he should have been banned from appearing on the show. When there are people whose views you find abhorrent and have a strong desire to censor, it is most important that you don't. It's easy allowing free speech to people you agree with but if you can do it to someone who says the opposite to you, that is the true test of democracy.

I really, really don't understand this whole "giving them publicity" argument.

The BNP get enough column inches and publicity through the media as it is.

Also - they have Party Political Broadcasts on BBC and ITV which have been watched by millions of people. This whole thing really isn't anything new.

They have plenty of publicity. Nick Griffin's appearance on QT, and the surrounding hubbub, is not going to make people go "Ooh who's this guy... this BNP lot sound like a good bunch don't they?!". People know who the BNP are, people know who Nick Griffin is. Question Time isn't going to change that.

The danger about the BNP is that apart from hardcore right wing scum who are always going to vote for them, is that they have been very good at presenting themselves as a party who will DO something about the stuff which pisses a lot of floundering British voters off. Just their very well-polished and powerful statements is enough for some people.

However, when you put Nick Griffin under the spotlight - he doesn't seem like a very confident and assured man, does he? Put him on the spot and his words are hollow and he's exposed as the blithering idiot he always has been.

And this whole thing about being seen on the BBC means that the beeb are "legitimising their agenda". No it doesn't! Their agenda is inherently illegitimate and will fall down under scrutiny. The more the BNP allow themselves to be put on the spot and for their weaknesses to be exposed the better, if you ask me...

Of course, he came across as a complete fuckwit; but that won't do him any harm with the sort of fuckwits who vote for his risible party. The panel needed someone who genuinely speaks for the alienated working class, that can show up the stupidity of Griffin and offer an alternative to the racist scaremongering of the BNP; a working class person (unlike Griffin); maybe a Bob Crow type figure. Not that you'll find anyone of that ilk in New Labour, let alone the Torys or Lib Dems.
Griffins squirming, sweating and lopsided nervous grin, will probably do him more harm than anything either he, himself or the other panellists said.

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Curmudgeonly Rock 'n' Roll time traveller from ye olden days

2nd verse same as the 1st...

Would have liked to seen Billy Bragg up against him, to be honest.

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sometimes I write things....

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Tall, moustachioed alcoholic - plays firewood with a bow.

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Crazy haired surfin' slacker