Food for thought ahead of BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on tonight’s Question Time (#BBCQT if you’re following on Twitter).
If you missed Kenan Malik’s Radio 4 Analysis ‘Who’s Afraid of the BNP’ programme on September 28, you can read the transcript on his website or listen to it again here.
Some provocative material from its selection of contributors. Among them was Nick Griffin, who was challenged on his comments about the Holocaust and his party’s admission procedure.
Views were mixed about Griffin’s invitation onto Question Time. Writer and economist Phillipe Legrain was in support of the BBC’s decision:
“Freedom of expression is not something that you only give to people who you agree with, but, just as importantly, to people who you don’t,” Legrain said.
“Frankly, I think the BNP appearing on Question Time will be fantastic. Nick Griffin is going to get caught out. He’s going to sound stupid, he’s going to sound extremist. That kind of exposure is actually the best way to combat the BNP.”
- Charlie Beckett: ‘Why liberals should watch the BNP on the BBC’
- Dr Bart Cammaerts: ‘Mainstream Media and the Extreme Right. What to Do?’
- Padraig Reidy: ‘Questioning the BNP’
- Fraser Nelson: ‘Question Time Conundrum’
- Sunny Hundal: ‘How their language has changed’
- Jim Wolfreys: Nick Griffin follows Le Pen’s lead