Griffin on Question Time: A Critique
Well, needless to say Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time could have gone a lot better.
It cannot be said that the bullying manner of the other panellists coupled with the carefully chosen, hostile audience was unexpected. Never has there been such an episode of QT. Never has any other panellist been ganged up on with such hatred and vehemence. To be clear, I wholly commend Mr Griffin for his efforts given the way in which the circumstances were stacked against him, though let’s for a moment evaluate his performance as a whole.
Mr Griffin seemed to be placing far too much emphasis on attempting to play the nice, polite chap, the reasonable guy. Let’s make it clear now; there is no room for these characteristics in the world of politics, particularly at a time when the Nation is looking for strength in a leader and Griffin showed himself to appear weaker than even Mr Brown!
Admittedly this was largely due to constant interruption on the side of both the panellists and the audience (with, of course, no help from the host) as well as attempts made by Dimbleby and Straw alike to entrap Mr Griffin when it came to the issue regarding an explanation into his previous thoughts concerning matters such as the holocaust; matters which Straw and Dimbleby know are sensitive areas whereby speaking of them, if misinterpreted, could result in prosecution thanks to oppressive laws against freedom of speech put forward by the cretinous elite within the European Union.
However, Mr Griffin missed an excellent opportunity to explain exactly this, instead stumbling over his words and at times coming across rather incoherent.
One point I must touch upon is the way in which Mr Griffin handled Bonnie Greer’s condescending and, quite franky, rude attitude towards the latter part of the show.
Greer was heard to mock Mr Griffin’s 2.2 Cambridge degree moments before making a wholly invalid point regarding her fantasy of a multicultural Roman Britain, as if by doing so her argument would gain more credibility. Now, Nick Griffin’s overly strained attempt at laughing this off could be seen as little more than pandering to an ethnic.
Heaven forbid he should sharply and concisely put her in her place in the same manner he shot down Jack Straw after his rant about colour/racism being a key part of BNP ideology, whereby Nick quite succinctly put it as, “Skin colour’s irrelevant, Jack.”
Ideally he should’ve begun to differentiate between race and ethnicity in an attempt to educate those who may not be aware of the fact that the British National Party is ideologically ethno-Nationalist, not racialist, though never mind.
Mr Griffin did manage to successfully expose the panel’s utter disregard for the existence of the English ethnic group, though as aforementioned, more effort should have been placed on defining ethnicity in comparison to race or civic British identity.
On the whole it was a poor performance from all sides (albeit one amusing positive is that Ms Warsi at times seemed more keen to attack Labour minister Jack Straw than Mr Griffin), though the panel failed in adequately countering any points Mr Griffin put forward (when able) even if Mr Griffin, in turn, was unable to successfully do the same.
By Jersey Royal
I think this is wholly unfair.
Not only did Nick get ambushed with a complete format change – the first in 30 years – an entirely hostile audience, panel and host but he also had around 1000 people outside wanting to kill him; given all of this and the fact that going on QT would be nerve racking for most in the best of conditions I think he did the best possible in the circumstances and that he came over as very reasoned and polite, rather then the angry, demented raving and ranting monster they wanted to provoke.
I wouldn't have liked to be in his shoes and I am sure that next time around – now the ground rules are firmly set and known to the public – Nick will be more on the attack and more ready for the show trial.
I think he deserves our support and admiration for going on and he deserves our support and admiration for engineering a situation where he was even invited on. It was an unprecedented even for British Nationalists and down the hard work of the activists, but especially down to Nicks extraordinary leadership and political savvy.
I think unjustly drubbing him in public like this serves no one but our enemies.
As aforementioned, Nick is one of Britain's most loathed public figures and should be used to such animosity.
I have also said he is able to appear assertive without being aggressive but failed to do so on the show.
Nick will always have support and this article was not a put-down but a piece of constructive criticism.
Just imagine the position reversed.
Any one of the other guests subjected to the same abuse,
Fight through a hoard of rabid retards, face a panel who's only reason to appear is to abuse and demonise, an audience hand picked to do the same and a host who incites the audience to boo and jeer.I think any one of them would be brave to last for 5 minutes.
I applaud Mr Griffin. A brave and committed spokesperson for our cause.
Yes Walesrocs.
They can be their own worst enemy at times.
Yes Mr Griffin has past history but that is now past.
The fascists used it as ammunition and emptied their breeches. Our approval rating has gone up by 50%, When they try to use it again it will be viewed as yesterdays news.
I defy anyone of our members to claim they would have done better in that bearpit that is democracy.
I do not believe Nick could have done better – He aroused considerable sympathy from many that I have spoken to.
His job was to appear the nice guy. His achieved aim was to show that he is not jack-booted. His job was just to be there, on display, now in the public image. His job was to allow the audience to display themselves as puerile, carping, manipulators intent on intimidating.
His appearance was not without physical danger.
Well done Nick – a great number aplaud you!
You might well find that this appearance to be the pivotal point in giving the population “social permission” to identify publically with the BNP
He had little choice. After all the complaining about how anti-democraic the BBC is, he could hardly turn down an invite to finally appear on QT. It was always going to be a 'gang up on Nick Griffin' show. It's safe to say he is probably one of the most hated men in Britain and should be used to his opposition behaving in such a manner.
From what I have seen from Griffin before, he is an astounding speaker and able to put almost and opposition to shame. It seemed like last week he was merely trying to be an appeaser rather than the leader many know he is.
He has the ability to be assertive without appearing aggressive. Surely the BNP would prefer a vote of absolute support than one of sympathy?
He did attempt to differentiate between colour and ethnicity, though given the way in which the entire panel (and likely much of the British public) are so unfamiliar with the differences, it would have been highly beneficial to do so to a greater degree, though admittedly he wasn't given much opportunity.
David Dimbleby was against Nick right from the start, when Nick mentioned that Jack Straw's father was imprisoned for draft dodging Dimbleby immediately cried 'what's that got to do with anything' and from that point on seemed to be trying his hardest to make Nick look foolish. Bonnie Greer did not do herself any favours, she appeared belligerent, bitchy and not very intelligent, the Asian woman on the panel (can't recall her name) appeared aloof and did not really contribute anything significant to the debate, and Jack Straw was plain old Jack Straw. As far as Nick's performance is concerned, he stuttered on the Holocaust Denial question and also when asked about his connection with Ku Klux Klan members, although he did make some excellent points about the evils of Islam, taking into consideration the fact that most of the audience were vehemently anti-BNP and the panel and host were equally against him Nick did reasonably well, however, if you want my honest opinion – I wish Nick Griffin had stayed at home.
I'm in complete agreement.
I’m afaid the whole QT performance of Nick Griffin reinforced what I’ve always thought of him, a lightweight!. Whatever way you look at it he stumbled through the whole debate and it was cringing to watch. He was ambushed etc,however, he knew this was coming, it was no surprise to me or millions of others, BUT it caught Nick Griffin off guard. I say Mr .Griffin stand aside, you have brought the BNP as far as you are able to do, now let someone else with more talent take over.