Whilst I enjoyed watching Nick Griffin being torn a new arsehole……

Question Time last night, was a bit like Jerry Springer for the middle classes. We got to watch, as reason and intellect kicked the arse of bigotry and ignorance. We watched as the sheer eloquence of Bonnie Greer, and Sarweeda Warsi, brought into sharp relief the flawed and bigoted premises which underpin the BNP’s ‘politics’. It was brilliant telly. By the end, I was praying taht Nick Griffin be allowed to speak, because every time he opened his mouth for any length of time, he dug himself deeper and showed up another of his prejudices. My heart was in my mouth… my friends all thought the same.

And for a brief moment, I truly thought that the BBC had done the right thing, by giving him the air of publicity. BUt then I remembered something. I have never been in danger of voting BNP, neither have the friends of mine who were cheering.

We kid ourselves that the reason people vote BNP is some kind of apathy with a political process, that has resulted in people feeling disenfranchised. A vote to say you are sick of the tories/labour/libdems. I am fairly sure that in the run up to the programme, my view was that the best way to tackle people like Nick Griffin, was to show their views for what they are.

I forgot the evidence of my own eyes, I forgot to apply logic. I was kidding myself that if people could see Nick Griffin for what he is, then somehow his threat would be diminished.

In the town where I live, you wont find a BNP supporter. In the midst of organochavs and social workers, I will only find people who agree with me. In the towns that surround where I live, Keighley, Burnley, Rochdale, Halifax- there were many people, who saw the show very differently.

I know that there were pubs last night, where they saw someone they believe to be a valid politician, humiliated solely by having his views subjected to debate. They didnt need to see through Nick Griffins lies, and misrepresentations. They already know what he stands for. They agree with him.

Voting BNP is not an act of apathy. Getting up off your arse, to vote BNP is an act of racism. The people who are most at threat by NIck Griffin didnt see the views they thought he had, stripped away, to reveal racism and ignorance. They already agreed with the views he was trying to hide.

People might like to discuss the BNP as a whipping stick for the mainstream political parties but the people who actually vote BNP are racist(there are many less of them, than they would lead you to believe). And the ideas they espouse are poison. They should never have been up for debate. The idea that they are debatable, is as ludicrous and dangerous as the idea that they should be allowed to be represented in the political process.

You cant refuse to hire someone on the grounds of race= yet you can go out and vote for a party, whose entire manifesto is based on racism? BNP should not be a legitimate political party. There should never have been a question of whether they were to appear on Question Time, because we should have legislated against a party who exist for this reason long ago.

BNP are not a political party. They have no ‘politics’. They have hatred, and bigotry, the rest- window dressing. ‘Debating’ the views of the BNP implies there is something to actually debate. Just as allowing the racism that is outlawed in all other areas of our life, to be reflected in a political party, and allowing the BNP to exist,  legitimises those views. Allowing them to be debated on the most important political show in the UK, gives them  legitimacy.

And the fire lit by that legitimicy,  given the oxygen of publicity, will respond as if doused with petrol, when added to by the perceived ‘persecution’ of this man. Last night was the Nick Griffin show. It was a show where the opinions that people had already were validated, and a show which allowed Nick Griffin to say that he was persecuted and attacked for valid political views. And it was a show that said loud and clear, these views are worthy of debate.

I still think the BBC had no choice but to allow him to appear- I just do not understand why the BNP is allowed to exist in the first place.

And while teh disgust of the politicians who debated with him last night was admirable, remember these are people who helped create this fire. Because underneath their disgust, was the fact that they are the ones who coined the terms ‘bogus asylum seeker’, have been willing to whip up islamaphobia, and homophobia, and play on the politics of fear- when it has been expedient for them.

That said, while I am fairly sure last nights programme did more harm than good – I will still be trying to organise a big gay kissathon, outside Nick Griffins house. #gogayforgriffin