In the days that led up to Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time, the British public were snowed under by a blizzard of comment and pontification, from a huge variety of political and social commentators. Their arguments broadly ranged from plain, out-spoken outrage that the BBC were providing such a divisive and offensive individual this kind of stage on which to strut, to hopes that Griffin’s ideas, when exposed to the full glare of public scrutiny, would be laid bare as the manipulative, racist poison that they are.
“Because the policies of the main parties are often predicated on winning the support of crucial middle class groups, a political vacuum has been left in many of our poorest Northern cities; a vacuum into which the BNP have happily rushed”
However, as David Dimbleby, Nick Griffin and the other panel guests took to the Question Time set, an important principle was at stake; the notion that our democracy is strong enough to defeat the BNP’s brand of fascism all by itself.
Moreover, the censorship or exclusion of Griffin’s party would only leave those people who voted for them feeling an even greater sense of isolation and disillusionment. And it was this very dislocation from modern British society and mainstream politics that caused many white, working class, northern voters to support the BNP in the first place. Because the policies of the main parties are often predicated on winning the support of crucial middle class groups, a political vacuum has been left in many of our poorest Northern cities; a vacuum into which the BNP have happily rushed. To attempt to silence the BNP would simply deepen the disharmony in these communities. So, the way to defeat the BNP, is the same way any British political party is defeated; by engaging them on the issues, and speaking to the concerns of their supporters. The concerns of their supporters are not, fundamentally, immigration or racial hatred, but rather social and economic stagnation, a sense that they don’t get a ‘fair deal’ in modern Britain, and a growing resentment towards those groups who appear to be succeeding at their expense.
“If the government has not seen fit to stop the BNP from spreading its message, then why should the BBC?”
How these concerns are addressed, through policy and presentation, is a matter for the mainstream political parties, and an urgent one. However, i
n the absence of a coherent strategy to improve the lot of Britain’s white, northern working class on the part of the political mainstream,
it is not the BBC’s job to defeat, or silence, the BNP for them. Therefore it was hypocritical and wrongheaded of mainstream political figures to criticise the BBC for allowing Griffin to appear on the programme. The BBC’s role is to reflect British society through its programming and, like it or not, the BNP does represent an admittedly small part of modern Britain. Moreover, it was unfair of Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians to expect the BBC to go so much further than any of their parties or the government have gone before, and actively censor the BNP. If the government has not seen fit to stop the BNP from spreading its message, than why should the BBC?
That is not to say that the BBC got it entirely right. When Griffin criticised the corporation for holding the show in cosmopolitan, multi-cultural west London, he was right, although for the wrong reasons. By hosting the show in Shepherd’s Bush, the audience was likely to be made up of people from a large variety of ethnic backgrounds. Of course it can be convincingly argued that it is exactly this kind of audience that Griffin needs to be challenged by as they are the sort of people he and his party have such a problem with. However, as Griffin squirmed, stuttered and sweated his way through the early roasting he received from his fellow panel guests and audience members, his opponents’ celebrations were misplaced. By beating up quite so openly and in an unforgiving manner on him, the audience and guest panellists were simply perpetuating the sense, in the minds of Britain’s white working class, that their views and concerns are ignored and even, at times, derided by the liberal, political mainstream. In short, modern, liberal, multi-cultural Britain gives the white, working classes another good kicking.
Ultimately the BBC’s decision to allow the BNP to appear on Question Time was controversial but correct, their choice of location understandable, but misguided. Hopefully lessons will be learned, not only by the BBC, but by the main political parties as well. Beating the BNP on the issues is the only way of beating the BNP. Refusing to address the issues and concerns of the white, working class supporters of the BNP, and attempts to censor or silence Griffin’s party, will create a ticking time bomb of resentment and disharmony in the towns and cities of Great Britain.
Joseph Ottaway is a Labour Party candidate for Carfax, City Council Elections May 2010
