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Archive for October, 2009

“‘Open-door’ Labour has betrayed us all”

Monday, October 26th, 2009

“‘Open-door’ Labour has betrayed us all” – Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun

Reacting to the news that Downing Street (read Andrew Neather’s Evening Standard column) has lied about the scale of migrants entering the UK, Trevor Kavanagh writes this damning conclusion:

“It is now likely the BNP will win a seat at Westminster at the next General Election. In the BBC view, that akes them ’respectable’.

It is impossible to predict how Labour’s irresponsible experiment will pan out.

We might end up like New York – a dynamic, energetic and creative economic powerhouse.

We might become a troubled, divided and quarrelsome country with too few immigrants who really want to work and too many who wish to bring this country crashing to its knees through violence.

But whatever the outcome, thanks to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Home Secretaries like Jack Straw, none of us had a damn thing to say about it.”

Our smug leaders have done nothing to see off the BNP – Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph

On Saturday, Charles Moore, Chairman of Policy Exchange and author of the foreword to Stolen Valour, points out that society has a slipshod definition of the term “extremist” and says:

“The BNP certainly is extreme, because hate is intrinsic to its message. But our Government has active links with people who are more extreme. There are Islamist groups which support Hamas suicide bombings, the killing of homosexuals (Mr Griffin merely finds it “creepy” when they kiss in public) and the killing of British troops in Afghanistan. These groups engage with the state, and even get taxpayers’ money. The Government justifies this with the weird theory that it is only the hard men who can hold back the even harder men from violence. So the hard men get the leverage.

In Northern Ireland, Labour has set up a system which permits and pays Martin McGuinness to be Deputy First Minister. Mr McGuinness was for many years Chief of Staff of the IRA, planning its terrorist operations. He has dropped this occupation, but never renounced it. He has proved the favourite terrorist argument – well-calculated murder wins you power. When Martin goes on Question Time these days, there is no Griffin-style bashing, just the solemn nodding of panel heads when he explains how to bring peace to our troubled world.

On Thursday night, Jack Straw fiercely engaged Nick Griffin on the subject of Holocaust denial. But when he was Foreign Secretary, Mr Straw led the attempt to appease President Ahmadinejad of Iran, who denies the Holocaust on the global stage and is trying to build a nuclear bomb to wipe out Israel.

When establishment figures say that the attitudes of the BNP help prepare the ground for violence, they are right. But they do not apply this logic to their engagement with Islamism – the only form of extremism which nowadays kills large numbers of our fellow citizens.”

Charles then writes: “The second error shown by the Question Time panellists – and by virtually all political leaders in this country – is to ignore the problems that are winning the BNP votes. Exposing Holocaust denial is worth doing, but easy. The hard bit is the real resentment on which the BNP can capitalise.”

BNP QT news round up

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Here is a round up of the best analysis of the last night’s BNP appearance on QT.

Nick Griffin: repugnant, slippery and exposed as an empty vessel – Daily Mail

Max Hastings gives his analysis of last night: “This was not Question Time as we know it, about Afghanistan, or the Roman Catholic bid to take over the Church of England, or bankers’ bonuses. It was QT squarely and exclusively about Nick Griffin and the views of his British National Party.”

On the immigration debate, Hastings says the following: “The Tory Baroness Warsi, by far the most impressive member of the panel, asserted boldly: ‘That is not an honest answer. There are real issues. We have to go out and say to these people – who have voted for the BNP – we are prepared to listen. We are prepared to deal with this. We need a cap on the numbers.’”

BNP on Question Time – Daily Telegraph

“Tory peer Baroness Warsi said Mr Griffin was ”obviously a confused man” and a ”thoroughly, thoroughly deceptive man who comes on here and tries to sell whatever message that he wants”.

He was ”evasive” in his answers and brings Christianity ”into disrepute”, she said.

But Baroness Warsi also accused Mr Straw of not being honest when he claimed that the rise of the BNP was not because of voter dissatisfaction with Labour policies.”

Nick Griffin on Question Time – The Times

Matthew Parris says: “For me the star of the panel was Sayeeda Warsi, from the Shadow Cabinet. She was cool, she was measured, and spoke with quiet passion. She sounded sincere and avoided fireworks.”

He goes on to say: 

“Jack Straw tried too hard. He looked anxious, sounded forced, and seemed to have practised many of his lines, losing his audience as he banged on about the past. To me — and for the first time in my observation of Mr Straw over the years — he was starting to look and sound like a man out of his time. He won, and deserved, the first spontaneous applause when he talked about the Second World War contribution of black and Asian troops; but when Lady Warsi challenged him to acknowledge public fears over immigration (“there are some things politicians just have to be honest about”) she had the better of him. It was of course easier for Lady Warsi as an Asian, to make this argument without fear of being called racist; but she exploited the advantage elegantly and with intelligence.

For the Liberal Democrats, Chris Huhne was lucid and confident, and spoke cogently, but said little that was distinctive; he didn’t lead; he didn’t take the argument forward.”

Nick Griffn’s night out – The Guardian

Sunny Hundal writes: 

“Like most people, I hate admitting when I am wrong. But the BBC proved me wrong last night by showing an episode of Question Time that wasn’t the car-crash I was expecting. My concern has always been that it was the wrong platform for Griffin as it doesn’t usually allow sufficient space for people to challenge each other. And so Griffin could have got away with pretending to be a “normal” politician by offering populist rants on Royal Mail, Afghanistan and other issues.

As it happened, the BBC’s David Dimbleby did not let him off the hook so easily and made him answer up to his highly controversial past. He was caught out: flustered, making inane statements and pretending he was being stifled by European law when asked to explain his antisemitic views. He must have felt stitched up.”

What the BNP leader says and the facts show – The Guardian 

This is an excellent piece on what Nick Griffin said last night.

Video highlights from BNP Question Time

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Should the debate have gone ahead? How badly did Nick Griffin come out of the debate? Watch these clips and make up your own mind.

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