Statement Time – #bbcqt

Okay so I’m not a super huge political commentator and I have no idea who were on the panel of Question Time last night apart from Nick Griffin and Jack Straw.

The BBC defended their move to put the leader of the British National Party (BNP) on Question Time as they have elected MEP’s currently in office. Therefore they have a right to be heard along side other political parties that appear on Question Time.

“We have concluded that the decision as to whether it is appropriate in all the circumstances for the BBC to allow the BNP to participate on Question Time is a question of editorial judgment, which the charter and framework agreement reserve for the director general.”

The committee said concerns about the potential content of the show could not be addressed before it was filmed.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain
“We have written to the director general asking him to engage personally to ensure that the broadcast programme complies with the general law, the BBC’s editorial guidelines and all other regulatory requirements”

Now I’m all for exposing the BNP for who they are but what David Dimbleby put forward last night was a biased witch hunt that lead more to statements being made at him, basically calling him a facist Nazi.  Hardly fair and the other politicians just piled in.  Now I have no sympathy for the man because he has proven himself to be a racist and a homophobe BUT when you’re invited on to a current affairs program where politicians answer questions from the electorate, you shouldn’t be baited into a blatent rat trap.

This was anything but a regular Question Time, whenever someone actually tried to ASK a question that wasn’t related to the BNPs core foundations they were cut off by the host.  There was only ONE real question about current affairs and that was regarding the Jan Moir article in the Daily Mail that basically blamed Stephen Gately’s death on his homosexual lifestyle.  This was yet another snare for Mr Griffin who exposed his homophobia to the room.

Had we kept with regular questions about politics, the strike, the daily mail article and MP expenses, he WOULD have exposed himself as a racist bigot BUT instead the audience and panelists attacked the man for an hour over things he’d said FIVE years ago.

It was a totally one sided attack and the man didn’t get much of a chance to defend himself. For Shame.

The problem with the BNP is they’re gaining votes because people feel helpless because the main parties refuse to talk about immigration for fear that someone will come back and call them racist.  It’s the price we pay for living in a politically correct world where everyone takes offence at the smallest of things.  The only time the panel did start arguing amongst themselves was when the Asian panelist Baroness Varsi brought up the problem with current immigration rules.

Two Million visa’s handed out every year but no one monitors when these visas expire and if the people are actually LEAVING the country. Which concerns some of the electorate that are falling for the BNP rhetoric

Don’t fall for it people… just don’t!!!

I just felt the BBC and David Dimbleby as host failed the public in exposing Nick Griffin as a racist, they called him a racist but that doesn’t make him one… had they spoken about actual topics relevent to today and not just picked up random quotes from his past so he could say “I was misquoted”  which has been proven true since today I saw lots of misquotes from last nights question time on Twitter.

Also the Asian guy who started his question with “Dick urrr Nick Griffin” you were a disgrace, what a way to endear yourself to a racist and prove him wrong.  Dimbleby should have cut you off and not let you make your ‘statement’!

The whole program was tackled in the wrong way and it was shameful…

But that’s enough… I might be voting Lib Dem cause Heather Teather is awesome on Question time, when she appears