Obligatory Nick Griffin/Question Time Post

What? This has nothing to do with Nick Griffin! Picture guy, you're fired!

By virtue of the fact that my blog’s had so many hits from people specifically Googling the phrase “Nick Griffin is a twat,” I feel slightly obliged to comment on the hugely controversial debate on Question Time last night.

Of course, he lost entirely. He got the verbal smackdown of a lifetime, and I think as a result I may be slightly in love with Bonnie Greer.

As you probably know, the decision to invite him on was hugely controversial. There were protests outside the BBC. But, like many people, I’m not with them. See, much as I loathe Griffin (incidentally, if any friends of mine are reading this and can’t think what to get me for my birthday next year, a low-cost idea would be to urinate on him in the street), I think he needs to be heard. If he’s not, he can quite rightly say to his supporters, “Well, what are they so scared of? Clearly I am a force to be reckoned with.” Whereas by allowing him to dribble his wrongheaded politics on TV, he’s exposed for the lunkheaded, ignorant, doesn’t-look-like-Jabba-but-now-I-can’t-get-the-idea-out-of-my-head bubo that he is.

The problem with the debate, in my ill-informed opinion, was that often his opponents came off as being as crude and kneejerk as him. Particularly disappointing was Jack Straw’s response to the suggestion that Labour’s immigration policy had resulted in a rise in BNP support, which was to go into another ramble about our long and glorious history of cultural diversity and providing refuge for the needy and blah blah blah. Which is fair enough, I’d agree with that (I mean, the Empire Windrush didn’t just show up on the offchance that we happened to need thousands of workers).

MV Empire Windrush

But by appealing to emotion rather than actually answering the question, Straw was playing the same game that Griffin himself plays when he goes on about feeling like a second-class citizen in his own country. Griffin’s complained that people only talk about the race element of the BNP’s policies, which I’d argue is a bit like saying “But nobody talks about Josef Fritzl’s skills as an electrician.” But, much as it pains me to say this, he does have a point. Of sorts. Christ I feel dirty now.

What I mean is, it’s a fact that the BNP’s support has risen and that they now have two seats in the European Parliament. And I don’t believe for a moment that all those people fail to realise that the BNP is a racist party. Nor do I believe that all its supporters are racist – hell, a fair few of them aren’t even white. What we should be asking is, why are people actually voting BNP? What is it about their wrongheaded policies that means people are willing to vote for them over any of the three mainstream parties? Instead of going for the kneejerk racist-racist-you’re-a-filthy-racist reaction every time Griffin opens his mouth, mainstream politics should be addressing that.

Godwin’s Law in effect: It’s a pretty common factor in history that people are willing to put up with extremist views if, in their day-to-day lives, the extremists look like they’re going to make things better. See the French Revolution. See the rise of the Taliban. See, yes, the Nazis.

Disarm Griffin by confronting the real issues. Once those are dealt with, the BNP will lose its grip on political legitimacy and return to the wasteland from whence it came.

I mean, that aside, Griffin looked like a complete dork. He stumbled and backtracked, he hurled accusations around and at the end – when it looked like he might just be able to salvage a little dignity – he had to bring his conspiracy theories re the BBC to the forefront. Way to make yourself look sane, Nick.

Bonnie Greer, on the other hand, was fantastic. She should get her own series. Hell, she should get her own parliamentary seat.

See also:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/23/bbc-question-time-nick-griffin - Apparently Griffin has his supporters.

Electile dysfunction

Welp, it’s another election this Thursday. I’m not going to patronise you by telling you who to vote for, because frankly I’m having trouble deciding myself. I long for the days when the person you voted for actually mattered. These days, the parties that are likely to actually win are utterly indistinguishable. It’s all publicity and populism. If Labour win, can the workers expect a better deal? If the Conservatives win, can the rich start singing “Happy Days Are Here Again”? Of course not. Also, I hear the Pope is a Catholic. So what sort of alternatives do we have?

Whoa! Hold on! Who’s that guy? Why, it’s Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party! Any relation of Peter Griffin? Who knows. Anyway, fuck this guy.

I’ll be honest, since the death of Screaming Lord Sutch, the British political landscape has been sorely lacking in humour, and until such a time as a worthy successor arises, the BNP fills that gap nicely. I have yet to meet a BNP member who wasn’t a small-minded inadequate. Let’s cut to the chase with the BNP policy on immigration:

“On current demographic trends, we, the native British people, will be an ethnic minority in our own country within sixty years.

To ensure that this does not happen, and that the British people retain their homeland and identity, we call for an immediate halt to all further immigration, the immediate deportation of criminal and illegal immigrants, and the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin assisted by a generous financial incentives both for individuals and for the countries in question.

We will abolish the ‘positive discrimination’ schemes that have made white Britons second-class citizens. We will also clamp down on the flood of ‘asylum seekers’, all of whom are either bogus or can find refuge much nearer their home countries.”

Yeah, I really feel like a second-class citizen. I mean, Christ, white Britons only make up 87% of the population of England. What are the other 13% planning? 

Also, “all of whom are bogus”? What the fuck? Are they saying these people just, I don’t know, faked a war? Like, you know, maybe things are actually okay in Kosovo? Speaking as someone who’s actually worked with asylum seekers – that is to say, face-to-face in situations relating directly to their applications for asylum, not just having read what the Daily Mail heard about them – that’s one of the most offensive things I’ve ever read. And I’ve read Fu Manchu.

And all this bullshit about immigration – here’s a little economic breakdown. People want quality goods and services. People don’t want to pay much for these goods and services. How can the supplier afford to supply cheap goods and services? By paying lower wages. Who’s willing to do a crap job for crap pay? Immigrant workers.

Then there’s the fact that a lot of British workers work overseas, and a lot of major foreign companies operate here. If we started telling immigrants here to sod off, do the BNP honestly think other countries would be all, “Good job!” Of course not. They’d respond in kind. British companies operating overseas could almost certainly expect a metaphorical knee in the groin.

So, hey, if you’re willing to seriously mess up the economy because you don’t like foreigners, and if you’re willing to pay extra for menial labour, then by all means ban immigrants. Except… there’s another point…

Britain is founded on immigration. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re a fucking island (which is also why I take issue with the use of the word “borders” elsewhere on the BNP site). If we’d said no to immigration in the past, we’d have said no to George Frideric Handel, the Duke of Wellington, Oscar Wilde, Marc Isambard Brunel and many, many kings among others.  Which highlights another point – Britain, historically, has always had a large immigrant population. Elizabethan workshops were staffed by French and Dutch workers. Nineteenth century Limehouse was a Chinatown. In 1936, the Battle of Cable Street saw the East End’s various ethnic groups uniting in peace and harmony to kick the shit out of the British Union of Fascists.

This, in turn, brings up another point. What actually is an indigenous Briton? How could I prove that I’m not a mudblood, or whatever the BNP calls them? Fortunately, the BNP website offers us this handy definition.

“We use the term indigenous to describe the people whose ancestors were the earliest settlers here after the last great Ice Age and which have been complemented by the historic migrations from mainland Europe.

The migrations of the Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Norse and closely related kindred peoples have been, over the past few thousands years, instrumental in defining the character of our family of nations.”

What? So basically you’re a native Brit if your ancestors came over in the Ice Age, plus something about how immigration used to be okay back when it was centuries ago but it’s not okay now. Something like that.

In conclusion, don’t vote BNP because Christ imagine putting these people in charge of something important.

The BNP, as they view themselves.The BNP, as everyone else views them.