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.
