exposed him to justified ridicule, and damaged his already-zero credibility so much more effectively than the blustering of the other panellists, particularly Straw.

However, Diane Abbott has made a pertinent observation on This Week, suggesting that the natural British sense of fair play and support of the underdog may ironically work in his favour in view of the general savaging he received from all quarters.

...and they bully people as a matter of course. But he *was* bullied on the show, and it seemed to me that they would have been better served to talk about other matters in the UK today(e.g. the postal strike) and expose him with the lack of knowledge that it seems pretty clear he has, or rather that he doesn't..

And the fact that he was bullied, means that he might gain some favour, and THAT is the most worrying thing

(Well, that and the fact I seem to have just agreed with Dianne Abbot)

...that he came over like a less than charismatic tub of lard. His last rant about the ultra-left BBC was priceless. But, to be honest, I'm more worried about how he came across to the people who did, or might, vote for him.

When he started off on the "non-violent KKK" anything he said would have made him look like a loon but she jumped in and let him off the hook. And god knows where she thought she was going with the comments about neandertals and the ice age.

I thought he was bullied too.It seemed to be a chance for the main parties to show that they aren't the bunch of pricks they really are.Kind of better the devil you know.I can see a spike in BNP 's support after this.Which is sad because if the main political parties cant make mincemeat out of a meathead then we are truly fucked.

.. which he richly deserves. The panel wasn't very good. Jack Straw was presented with an open goal as the first response to the first question and to continue the football analogy scuffed his shot which just about made it over the line. The Tory lady, whose name I forget was the most impressive of the mainstream politicians, it pains me to say.

The important thing though was that Griffin was revealed as a rather stupid man, whose main response to awkward questions was either to laugh or dismiss it as a lie. Unfortunately the people likely to vote for him are not, I suspect, Question Time watchers.

Saw Question Time last night and the BBC were right to put Nick Griffin on the show. He made himself look like a complete twerp and I cant believe anyone would have been swayed by his performance. Hopefully that will have put paid to his political career.

..is that, although the may seem attractive on the fringes , once the get anyway near power their appeal soon evaporates as their leaders and policies are exposed to a wider audience. In times of crises, or boredom, people often flirt with the nutbags, and Griffin and the BNP are Grade A nutbags and nonsense-mongers.

... sadly, I think the BNP will have gained more votes than they lost last night, hopefully not enough to matter.

The disenfranchised who are attracted to the BNP's fascist rhetoric and feel that nobody represents them, would perceive last night as nothing but a bullying session, which is fine for the rest of us who wanted to see Griffin taken down a peg or fifty, but would have left them feeling even more sure in their convictions.

I still completely agree that he should have been let on, though.

Beeb not giving in to politicians for the sake of license fee. Makes a change.

Echoing Chris G's comment from a few weeks ago...very bored with the media constantly using the "Nazi" word as a catch-all right wing label.

Repugnant, slippery and exposed as an empty vessel
- Daily Mail (Max Hastings column)

BOOS AS BIGOT FACES FURY ON TV
BNP leader Nick Griffin was barracked and booed last night for laying bare his sickening views
- Daily Express

"I AM THE MOST LOATHED MAN IN BRITAIN"
(We couldn't have put it better, Mr Griffin...)
- The Sun

BNP BOSS'S TV HUMILIATION
PROTESTS AS GRIFFIN MAKES A FOOL OF HIMSELF ON QUESTION TIME
- Daily Mirror

BNP CHIEF IS A NUTTER
- Daily Star

Didn't he do well? [/brucievoice]

In all of this ,is that if people do not turn out to vote in elections you run the risk of this sort of person being voted in.
The BNP got 6.2% of a 34.7% turnout.
Hardly a rousing mandate.
The vast majority of British people would not vote for a racist party but unfortunately the vast majority of people don't get out and vote.
This shows how important it is for us to vote in elections.

But so was the panel. Jack Straw did a very poor job. Bonnie Greer's wit saw her in good stead, but was it effective?

I was thoroughly depressed by the end of the programme, I suspect what I saw was a reinforcement of the status quo writ large.

If only Jon Cruddas had been the labour voice. At least he has experience of the far right, the programme could have been so much different.

Right. I'm off to mutter to myself.

which was closer in style to xfactor than a political debate (this is bad thing by the way) wasted a lot of time and effort. The problems percieved or otherwise that turned people to the BNP are still with us. One of the aspects of BNP support is the very narrow and alternative (check out the speeches on youtube) media they use not sure 10:30pm BBC1on thursday is peak viewing time for them.

So basically a lot of energy (particularly by the Political classes) has been expended for little effect, nobody has had their views changed either way after last night.

...you had better make sure you are a shark too!. Whilst the panel were pretty poor, they did at least manage not to shout at Griffin and even Dimbleby had the nous to let him reveal his true status as plankton.

Apparently, the BNP was desparate for this national exposure to be their launch pad. Unfortunately for them, any rational, half-way intelligent person would have been left appalled by Griffin's inept, obnoxious performance. However, as has already been said, I don't imagine too mnay of the BNP's 'target market' are QT watchers.

* Two cringey moments for the incompetent Jack Straw. First, the black woman highlighting his "afro-Caribbean" faux pas and the look on his face afterwards. Second, his panicy response to the seemingly Tory-leaning black man's question.

* I thought Bonnie Greer was poor - uncertain, meandering points delivered in a slightly earth mother manner.

* It was basically a Q&A for the BNP, not a proper Question Time which would certainly have had questions about the postal strike, Afghanistan and probably the economy.

* Chris Hulne. Had Nick Griffin accused the Govt, as Hulne did, of incompetence in allowing 700,000 east Europeans rather than its predicted 50,000 into the UK, he would have been slaughtered. Chris Hulne is a Liberal, a Liberal.

* Griffin's lack of charmisma, his tics and eyes are enough to put many a floating voter off, never mind his odious policies. However, I fear there is a growing section of UK society that would have been attracted by some of the things he said (eg not getting involved in Iraq/Iran), not just white van man but Mondeo-man too.

* Sayeeda Warsi came across very well - conciliatory and modern, making Straw & Hulne look like the old fashioned point-scoring politicians that the country is fed up with.

could have been gained by allowing this programme to air. And that is what has been gained. Nothing. We are no further forward and neither have we taken a step back.

Those who intend to vote BNP will probably continue to do so and those that don't, won't. Perhaps, a good thing would be for large numbers from minority groups to join the BNP, now they can do so. Understandably, they may be nervous to give such an organisation their names and addresses. But such a move would effectively kill of the BNP

Sadly, racism is always with us - it waxes and wanes in almost exact correlation to perceptions of economic well being and social settlement.

Racism is on the rise currently- fuelled by a whole complex web of factors. Amongst them - a tough economic climate, a rapidly changing social and technological landscape, the involvement of Britain's armed forces in a war in in which the enemy is brown and Muslim, the polarising effect of radical Islam, the arrival of large numbers of migrants from Eastern Europe - a whole slew of issues and concerns.

And fear - which is what racism plays on.

Sad to say, it is the apathy of the many that is allowing the evil idiocy of the few to flourish.

1 - They didn't allow ANYONE to debate the (possibly BNP-supporting) audience-member's question re allowing immigration in a time of rising unemployment. Like it or not, this is a key reason why people are voting for BNP: the 'come over here, take our jobs' argument. This should have been refuted, they should have described all the other factors that lead to unemployment. Instead he was immediately shouted down and ignored so one of the major fronts on which the BNP fights was left free to attack once more. It should have been demolished because it was an ideal opportunity to do so.

2 - No one really took Sayeeda Warsi to task over her obvious discomfort about (and previously reported antipathy towards) same sex partnerships. Instead she was allowed to get away with a wooly party-line statement about civil partnerships. If the BNP are to be taken to task over their obscene views then so do others, regardless which party, race or religion they come from. Otherwise it becomes the 'one rule for us, another rule for THEM' situation that BNP supporters continually bleat on about and plays right into that party's hands.

Other than that, I thought this was a step in the right direction. Griffin was allowed to bury himself in a mire of 'my dad's bigger than your dad' playground arguments and pitiful attempts to sidestep direct quotes. It was transparent and shameful and, if nothing else, proved that the 'leftist media conspiracy' against the BNP is in fact an accurate portrait and not a media creation.

Nick Griffin: the ugly face of British politics.

For me, this is personal - I'm a second generation non-white child of Commonwealth immigrants. I can't be blase or particularly rational about it, no matter how hard I try. Sorry.

The headline in the Independent this morning: "Griffin slain on Question Time". Sadly, not a metaphor.

I apologise for saying this, but I could happily shoot the fecker. I don't care how "irrelevant" he is.

I think it's really worth reading.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/simon_barnes/article68...

Shit stinks. Who'd have thought?

first up, having griffin on the show was a good ruse on behalf of the government, for burying bad news that may have cropped-up on the agenda... such as the postal strike which is creating havoc as we read this.

second, griffn is the "acceptable" face of racism in england... he may come across as a bumbling idiot, but behind the scenes, there are probably some very clever people orchestrating their agendas and actions... he looks quite foolish, perhaps as a smoke screen to allow the BNP to not be taken too seriously, and sneak in under the radar.

me, i find them all a bit too king kanute-esque and more than bizarre.
and i'm not going to be telling my friends that they "have to go back".
load of arse.

http://www.slapnickgriffin.co.uk/

Sadly, if there's much store to be put in this article, he didn't do as badly as we might have hoped.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8323638.stm

Peter Hain says his fears have been proved right after a poll suggested support for the BNP has risen after Nick Griffin appeared on Question Time.

A YouGov poll in the Daily Telegraph suggests 22% of people questioned would "seriously consider" voting BNP.

The Welsh secretary said: "The BBC has handed the BNP the gift of the century on a plate and now we see the consequences. I'm very angry."

The show was watched by a record eight million people on Thursday.

The opinion poll carried out after Mr Griffin's appearance found 22% of voters would consider voting BNP in a future local, general or European election.

Two-thirds of the 1,314 people polled by YouGov for the Daily Telegraph dismissed voting for the party under any circumstances, with the rest unsure.

When asked how they would vote in an election tomorrow, the proportion supporting the BNP stood at 3%, up from 2% a month ago.

However, more than half of those polled said they agreed or thought the party had a point in speaking up for the interests of indigenous, white British people.

The poll did not ask whether their views were affected as a result of Mr Griffin's appearance on Question Time.

Complaints

Mr Hain, who campaigned against Mr Griffin being included in the Question Time panel, said: "This is exactly what I feared and warned about."

Mr Griffin's fellow panellists on the show said he had been "shown up," but critics said the show had given the BNP huge publicity.

The BNP claims 3,000 people registered to join the party during and after the broadcast.

More than 240 complainants to the BBC felt the show was biased against the BNP, while more than 100 complaints were about Mr Griffin being allowed to appear on Question Time.

However, more than 50 people contacted the BBC to show their appreciation for the programme.

Mr Griffin, who was one of two BNP candidates to be elected to the European Parliament earlier this year, faced robust questioning about his views on race, immigration and the Holocaust from a largely hostile audience.

He criticised Islam, defended a past head of the Ku Klux Klan but insisted that he was "not a Nazi".

In my opinion he should never have been allowed on the show, his mandate was at best weak and ultimately we all know his views are abhorrent. The protests outside and general disruption made the whole thing farcical. It does make me wonder where the BBC will draw the line in future, war criminals, mass murderers? The panel was poor and I tend to avoid any programe with Bonny Greer on - why do we need luvvies on the show at all? Peter Hain has been the most eloquent critic on this subject and i am 100% with him on this one.

the problem was that all the panelists and dimbleby didn't handle the situation well. Though griffin managed to make himself look like the **** he is, they didn't help particularly.

There was too many multiple attacks, too much party politics, too much grandstanding, too much not dealing with the issues and just attacking the BNP.

The best at dealing with Griffin I thought was amazingly David Dimbleby, but precisely because he is supposed to be an impartial chair, that was a problem in itself.

In my view they should either have called a special question time, where representatives of parties and culture specifically attack the BNP and they defend it. Like Obama versus Bush or something, or a sort of TV jury. In that format they could have worked together constructively and put up rational arguments against the BNP, while Griffin exposed his horrible views as he did.

Or they should have let him be on the panel properly and dealt with the issues ignoring the BNP in general. His views really do defeat themselves when allowed to. When he is persecuted it allows him to look better. Just as his awful Bound and Gagged coo when he presented his party as denied free speech (because they were) making people think them justified in some way.

There is no question however, for the reason mentioned above, that Griffin should be not allowed to appear on question time. That strengthens his position. Similarly I don't think the BNP should have been banned (with other MEP's) from coming to parliament. That again strengthens their "we are righteous people being suppressed position." They are people who would ultimately exterminate other races, we should stop allowing them to have other "issues" to smokescreen their hatred in.

The BBC handled it wrongly. But they were right to have him on. The appearance may have strengthens their support a bit, but it will also have solidified peoples opposition to the BNP, making people voting against them also rise, and making those slightly tempted by their "new way" understand not to attach themselves to them. Banning them and not allowing them to speak will ultimately by the actions that will allow their support to significantly rise and we should watch against that.

Another problem is that people can't deal with the issues around it rationally. Yes Churchill wouldn't technically have been allowed in the BNP, well done Bonnie Greer, however his views were pretty similar to the BNP's on occasions and he did GAS THE KURDS making him quite similar. The truth is he was a man in a different time and he had complex views, great strengths and great evils. We don't need to make him into a saint, the impulse to do so is exactly where the BNP are. He was the right man to lead us in the 2nd World War and he was also a war criminal and an alcoholic. He gave wonderful quote. He did terrible things.

The honest answer is that it makes sense for the BNP to try and appropriate Churchill. In the modern world we have to accept that our past glories must be taken in context and that whether Churchill would or wouldn't have been in the BNP is irrelevant. The BNP are noxious and the qualities of Churchill they admire were equally noxious.

Just found this posted on Andrew Collins' blog.

Childish? Yes, but it made me laugh.

Her policies on council house sales, 'good' schools v. 'bad' schools (leading to selection by mortgage) and a whole plethora of other policies designed to divide people, create greater inequality and move away from the 'one nation' Toryism of the past (the much maligned Heath for example). This has led to the creation of USA style deprived ghettoes in many cities and it is in these enclaves (when specifically populated by mainly white residents left beached by changing economic tides) where extremists, with a manifesto of distortion and clap-trap, can persuade the disaffected to support them.
Labour have, predictably, done nothing to improve social mobility or genuinely alleviate poverty.
This is, of course, not the whole story. The far-right is a perennial blot on the political landscape. But these policies, often masquerading as 'free-choice' (in reality a kind of 'market fundamentalism') have created a political vacuum in certain places. Rich pickings for 'right-minded' activists with simplistic 'quick-fix' solutions.