Can the wrong publicity be right?
Let's get one thing clear straight away: the more publicity the BNP get the better.
The moment their arguments and values are held up to even the lightest scrutiny, it becomes clear just how objectionable they are. For all but the most recalcitrant knuckle-dragger there's nothing to commend them and Griffin's shambolic performance - nervous, sweaty, inarticulate and grinning inanely - bore testimony to their awfulness.
So why, then, have they enjoyed a poll bounce since? How could such a poor performance be good for the party? Perhaps there's truth, after all, in the maxim that there's no such thing as bad publicity.
The weekend's papers agonised long and hard over the issue, some blaming the BBC for putting Griffin in the spotlight in the first place. I always thought that one of the great strengths of democracy was its ability to cope with testing viewpoints and deal with them by dint of reasoned argument. Protesting about a fascist by using thuggish tactics, as the protesters outside the Beeb did, seemed somewhat ironic to me.
Anyhow, I think the answer lies somewhere with the two following (and related) observations.
First, Griffin was ganged up on throughout the programme, which made it a rather unedifying spectacle. Those with a twinge of fellowship for the BNP's policies will have felt agrieved at that. There's nowt like a victim culture to rally the fetid masses, now is there?
Second, Labour's core white working class constituency feel they have been taken for granted and that they are the primary losers of the government's relaxed immigration policy. The BNP have only made ground in former Labour heartlands, after all. Ganging up on the one bloke standing up and articulating their sense of injustice - however inconsistent, racist and misguided he may be - was maybe not the cleverest thing to do.
Get him back on Question Time and run the programme along normal lines. If he wishes to run the country, as he does, why are we denied his views on the economy, on education, welfare reform and security, for example?
Let's have 'em, because you can bet your bottom dollar that they are ill-thought-through, inconsistent, intellectually bereft and generally useless. And that, good readers, is the best way of chipping away at the BNP's support.
COMMENTS
ab - Mon 26th Oct 2009
great article dougla. the real loser in the QT farce was not nick griffin. it was jack straw with his naive and predictable personal attacks and bonnie greer's pathetic attempt at being patronising and superior
a shambolic performace from all three politicans. why they didnt let him speak and hang himself with his own words i'll never know
just proving the point about how incompetent these politicans are
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