BNP on Question Time

Now, who thinks that I can get through an entire article on such a delicate and polarising subject without either committing libel, insulting someone or writing something stupid that will come back to haunt me? Yeah, me neither. This is also going to be one of those wordy, serious bits. Sorry about that.

Tonight the British National Party is on Question Time.

For any non-British people reading this, the British National Party are essentially anti-immigration, anti-anything-not-typically-British sorts who want to stop immigration, 'voluntarily' repatriate anyone who is not of white Anglo Saxon descent and turn the entire country into some white supremacy state. Yeah, those sorts.

Lets see if I can write about it without incriminating myself.

For the record, and to start off with, I do not support or like the BNP. They want to live in some deluded, isolated world that is reminiscent of the sort of thing that Enoch Powell dreamt of. I love multiculturalism, I love the fact that so many different types of people live here and I love the way that the UK has been changed by it. We used to own most of the world. Now most of the world is represented inside our shores.

That being said, I do sort of 'agree' with the BNP on certain things. Now, once again, I do not like nor support them. But they do have the odd good point. At times this country does compromise core values for the sake of political correctness. At times, especially when dealing with local government, it does seem that indigenous Brits get a bit of a raw deal. I can understand the frustrations that have bread this party. I feel an awful lot of them at times.

But the BNP is in no way, shape or form the way forward.

Although they have dressed themselves up in recent years to get away from the skin heads and swastikas of their past as the National Front, they still hold the same core values. They have been caught lying about racial murders at support rallys. Nick Griffin, the party leader and public face of the BNP, has been caught calling Islam a “wicked” religion.

They are not the sorts of people you would invite to a dinner party, lets say.

But the problem is that the sentiments they feed off are present in British life. And none of the mainstream parties seem to be willing to confront them, as often if they do people jump up and down and shout “racist!” at them. This has lead to the BNP emerging as a party who not only don't care about courting controversy, but thrive under it. The amount of press attention they get is hugely disproportionate to their actual standing in the political spectrum.

Many British people, myself even at times, feel the frustrations that the BNP claims to want to solve. Simple things, like making St Georges Day a national holiday, stopping the scaling back of Christmas so as not to insult or intimidate people of other religions. At the sight of it, it is a perfectly nice set of policies. But still hidden underneath that are the policies of repatriation and stopping immigration.

In a way, the BNP are good for politics. Once again, I do not like or support them. But they ignite debate over sensitive issues. The only problem is the main parties refuse to deal with them or the issues they raise, meaning that the BNP gain ground.

Tonight, when Nick Griffin sits amongst 'real' politicians and debates, hopefully it will kick start the larger debate. The only way to stamp out the BNP is for mainstream parties to address the same issues as them. The fact that the BNP can get the votes they do on racial issues alone, issues that larger parties mainly shy away from, shows that it is a pressing issue for many.

Once again, I do not like or support them. But I can sort of see where they are coming from. I do not like, support or totally agree with them. I cannot say that enough.

As for the whole debate on whether they should even be allowed on Question Time or not, I think they should be. Like it nor not, they are a party that gets votes, has a Member of European Parliament and a person on the London Assembley (the group that governs this nation's capital). They are represented. Not letting them on is pure censorship of the free media. I would much rather live in a country that lets a party like that exist than censors them. Once again, I'm not a supporter of them by any stretch, I'm just a supporter of democracy and free speech. On the other end of the spectrum, I believe the extremist Muslim group that wants to protest in London for the immediate implementation of Sharia Law should be able to. It is their opinion. If they can voice it in a peaceful way, then go for it. Free speech.

The one repercussion, though, of having Nick Griffin on Question Time is the chance that he actually does a good job, and comes over as sane, logical and normal. The consequences of that...

Anyway. I'll sign off with what I think needs to be done to fix the frustrations and issues that the BNP feeds off of. Because I'm a glutton for punishment.

St Georges Day needs to be made a national holiday. Give everyone the day off work, hold some big events in city centres and the like. Currently, I make more of an effort to go out and have a Guinness on St Patrick's day than I do have an ale on St Georges day.

Also, at the end of the day, this country is by nature a Christian\Catholic\Church of England country. All three celebrate Christmas. Don't scale it back with 'Happy Holidays' and 'Season's Greetings' and the like, while we take the Christ out of it and call it Xmas. Let kids do their nativity play. But, by the same stretch, let kids do a Ramadan or Diwali play. Celebrate all the religions' major events. Immigration needs to be looked at, although my political knowledge is not great enough for me to interject an idea of how.

The BNP are dangerous. Hopefully tonight, though, they will do some good by sparking the debate which brings out the issues they thrive upon. This will allow the major parties to tackle them, hopefully adopt some of the more sane policies that the BNP has used to gain a foothold in British politics and, in doing so, cut their legs out from under them.