Forums › Life › Politics, Media & Current Events › BNP on Question time BBC1
Nick Griffin is now moaning that it was “biased” because it was held in London (because the population is “too multicultural”) – but the reason Television Centre was picked is because its layout is easy to lock down in a tense situation whilst still permitting a large studio audience (being familiar to both the BBC Security and the Police)
The use of facilities elsewhere (including even Teddington, LWT or the other similar size studios outside London capable of hosting this such as Granada and whatever that posh new place up at Salford is called) would have created a safety risk to everyone including Nick Griffin as well as all the people what make the telly programme, and they are journalists/creatives/engineers, not coppers or soldiers so its unacceptable to put them at unnatural risk to what they have in their normal job.
when ITV have tried shows like this it has kicked off and innocent people such as studio workers have got injured so I don’t blame the BBC for playing safe. Free speech has its price, the British taxpayer has already spent a fair few quid supporting this spectacle..
One thing that bothered me about Question time was that it was more of a witch hunt than an open debate. Instead of actually engaging Nick Griffin about his policies they just hounded him to the point where you actually felt a bit sorry for him. (yes i felt sorry for him as i would any other human being in a room full of hostile people)
Yeah he’s BNP but to have a whole studio audience and panel baying for his blood and not letting him speak was a bit unfair, He could of easily been destroyed had they debated like normal adults but tbh they looked like group of bullies and it did them no favours at all.
The presenter was a bit of a twat as well, He ignored quite a few members of the audience who raised valid questions.
Specially the bloke who raised the issue about mass unemployment / immigration, I felt this was worthy of a look given it’s an important issue in the UK today but it was ignored.
The show was quite farcical really, typical of the BBC really.
good points cliffy
i think also, that its more just the panel trying to put across a point that gains the most applause, but its just hollow. then again thats kinda politics
thats the way the BBC operates – if you ever listen to the “brainy” programmes on the BBC Radio 4 like Today you will hear the presenters do exactly the same thing and even to normal politicians or lobbyists including fairly harmless people with positive ideas..
ITV used to be like that but (other than Trevor McDoughnut) they’ve mostly given up having serious news programmes (even the Anglia news is crap these days and I’ve not even seen the reasonable documentary/news shows (like “Crimes, Fires and Accidents”) they used to have in the 90s..)
todays media thrives on disagreement and controversy rather than trying to make Britain a better place to live in..
@DJCliffy 357893 wrote:
One thing that bothered me about Question time was that it was more of a witch hunt than an open debate. Instead of actually engaging Nick Griffin about his policies they just hounded him to the point where you actually felt a bit sorry for him. (yes i felt sorry for him as i would any other human being in a room full of hostile people)[/quote]
do you think the BNP actually have a proper policy on anything? of course people hounded him. he is not a politician, he is a racist maniac who is trying to manipulate the democratic process with the ultimate goal of closing down democracy
Quote:Yeah he’s BNP but to have a whole studio audience and panel baying for his blood and not letting him speak was a bit unfairnot quite as unfair as denying the right to speak to anyone who has a different skin colour. the whole free speech argument cannot apply to someone who wants to use free to prevent other people from having free speech or access to the democratic process based on the colour of their skin
Quote:The presenter was a bit of a twat as well, He ignored quite a few members of the audience who raised valid questions.david dimbleby is a tv presenting legend that cuts right through people’s BS and makes them make a point. watch the programme more often and you will see the high level of skill he employs. what would you prefer he did?
Quote:Specially the bloke who raised the issue about mass unemployment / immigration, I felt this was worthy of a look given it’s an important issue in the UK today but it was ignored.it wasn’t ignored at all. a significant part of the programme was dedicated to this issue
Quote:The show was quite farcical really, typical of the BBC really.
can you name a better mainstream media organisation that has recently allowed a constitutionally illegal, fringe, racist organisation the chance to air their views with the public recently?
@globalloon 357985 wrote:
do you think the BNP actually have a proper policy on anything? of course people hounded him. he is not a politician, he is a racist maniac who is trying to manipulate the democratic process with the ultimate goal of closing down democracy
Well it’s backfired on those people on the show now hasn’t it. By hounding him the BNP will get more support and a recent poll has said 1 in 5 of the voting public will now back the BNP. Looking on various sites discussing QT quite a few people have said they will now vote BNP.
Knowing the BNP they will capitalise on this and we all have those folks at QT to thank for this.
Well that’s fascism itself isn’t it, not allowing someone to speak because you don’t agree with their views (albeit racist ones), isn’t that what fascism is all about? We are all adults Global, I think i can work out for myself if someone’s views are warped. But if you don’t let me hear it then i will wonder why this is. It’s psychology innit, If i’m not allowed to hear them speak then i will go out of my way to hear them purely because it is a taboo subject.
I’ll agree it’s in bad taste to let someone with such warped views to speak publicly but hopefully a person with common sense will see it for what it is, utter nonsense and then at least that is one more person who realises what they (extremists) are all about. By silencing them it’s all very counter-productive imo and doesn’t help show us for what they really are.
He may well be a legend but on that program he was hardly impartial that night was he? I just saw him as another bully instead of the mediator of the debate.
I didn’t say all of it was ignored. I said important questions from the audience were ignored and passed by. They might well of discussed it slightly but i wanted to hear more, instead we had the first half which was just a shouting match. Complete waste of time really considering why they were there.
Jack Straw needed to be interrogated a bit more as well i though, I mean it’s because of him and Labour why the BNP were there that night.
(Edit) actually looking at what i wrote yesterday you might of thought i said it was all ignored, I meant some questions from the audience, not the subject of immigration, was ignored. Safe.
They may well be those things global but the fact is people are voting for them, might not be many but they are and we need to find out why are they voting for groups like the BNP.
Question Time was a perfect opportunity to examine the BNPs policies in an adult manner and it could of shown the public how ludicrous they really are and they could of been destroyed thus showing us why we should not vote for them.
Instead we saw one man being hounded by a room full of people and some people will side with that man. They have made a sort of martyr (not my words heard it on the news from a member of the public) out of Nick Griffin and the BNP will play on that now.
I do not support the BNP as i think they are scum but i think you will see a marked increase in support for them now because of the appalling way QT was held, I truly believe it could of been done a bit better.
I saw the whole thing as a wasted opportunity to show us and expose what the BNP are really all about and why they are not a viable choice but we didn’t really see it imo, it was more just attacking one man instead of his party.
You’ll probably shoot me down Global but this is just how i see things playing out, I’m not in any way defending the BNP i just think this whole thing will backfire and could be bad for this country in the future.
Although i bet the BBC were pleased with the show, 8 something million viewers wasn’t it? Much more than normal ratings.
I hope some of this make sense, I’m a bit hung over this morning and nothing looks right, hence why i keep coming back to adjust stuff lol!
the whole thing was a sham..
it was like a celebrity roast (google the term). I laughed out of intentions and shooked my head at some of the audience’s recations/questions.
nice one..BBC
should of let the pacman on him imo
@DJCliffy 357995 wrote:
I didn’t say all of it was ignored. I said important questions from the audience were ignored and passed by.
This wasn’t anything special for the Griffin show – this happens week in, week out on any discussion. Dimbleby always omits questions, or says “we’ll come back to it later” and never does. It’s very annoying, and I would like the programme to be on longer to include more questions, however by no means is it unique to the Griffin episode. Dimbleby would argue it’s to “keep focus in the allotted time frame”.
A note on Question Time itself:
Question Time was the wrong format because it is one of these “accessible” political programmes. It deals with media-spotlight issues and relies on the panel making “sound-bite” like statements which appeal to the general public. The general public being people that aren’t politically in-tune. They are the voters, and need to be appealed to – hence Question Time is one big PR moment for panellists, particularly the Tories (at the moment, but it could equally be Labour in a different political climate) as they can make snide swipes at Labour without ever having to explain their policy in detail.
Compare this to more sophisticated political programmes such as Newnight, which are watched by people who (without wanting to sound snobbish or elitist) know a lot more about politics. Newsnight deals with individual policy and looks in-detail at changes in the law, how they will be implemented, legal issues – it relies on more political intelligence.
Question Time is basically dumbed down politics. It is a show where the general public can air their views and whip up a bit of fury without ever understanding the pragmatical reasons for things, or most of the time, the actual policies that affect [insert latest media target here].
Having said that, there is absolute necessity for programmes like this. Politics needs to be accessible, as politicians need to be accountable. They represent the voters, after all. Closed-door politics understood only by a “political elite” is a threat to democracy.
The issue with the BNP on there is:
1. The media. The decision to allow the BNP on wouldn’t have created any uproar if it wasn’t for the media. It was a “big thing”. Since when has any other Question Time been a “big thing”? It hasn’t. This basically played into the hands of the BNP publicity machine.
2. Question Time. It allowed the BNP to debate on a fairly mainstream political programme which thanks to the media was watched by millions, and inevitably created a degree of sympathy a certain percentage of viewers. The BNP had their most successful recruitment night ever, gaining 3,000 more members that evening (Ministers warn of poll boost for BNP after Question Time | Politics | The Guardian).
Wrong format. Do not give an open platform to fascists – by no means impede free speech, but there is a difference between denying legal free speech and openly inviting somebody onto a programme when there is no legal requirement to do so. By legitimising and sharing platforms, European far-right parties in countries such as Denmark and Holland have been able to gain a foothold.
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@DJCliffy 358314 wrote:
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😉
im fascinated to know what he thinks would be so great about an all white britain
obv he cant apreciate what other cultures have braught to this country
as much as i dislike the bastard, it wouldve been good if he was given a better chance to express his views on the show
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Forums › Life › Politics, Media & Current Events › BNP on Question time BBC1
