THE APPEARANCE of far-right British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin on the BBC’s flagship Question Time programme last night was marked by protests outside the broadcaster’s headquarters and at several other centres.
Up to 1,000 protesters gathered at the studios in west London for hours before the BNP’s arrival, and 25 managed to break in at one point before they were seized by police and BBC security staff.
Despite publicly expressing fears that he would not be allowed in, Mr Griffin, who has claimed that his television appearance would propel the BNP “into the big time”, eventually entered without disturbance.
“I will, no doubt, be interrupted, shouted down, slandered, put on the spot, and subjected to a scrutiny that would be a thousand times more intense than anything directed at other panellists.
“But I am relishing this opportunity,” said Mr Griffin, who last night claimed that a series of quotations on matters from the Holocaust to immigration which have been repeatedly attributed to him for years were not accurate.
Despite coming under strong pressure to bar Mr Griffin, BBC director general Mark Thompson said the British government should ban the BNP from the airwaves, as it did Sinn Féin in the 1980s, if it believed that he should not be allowed on.
However, British prime minister Gordon Brown said it was a matter for the corporation and he did not want to interfere, though his Cabinet colleague Peter Hain has called on the BBC not to allow the BNP leader to appear.
The programme, presented by veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby, also included secretary of state for justice Jack Straw, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, Conservative community cohesion spokeswoman Baroness Warsi and American playwright and critic Bonnie Greer.
Mr Griffin was booed by the audience during stormy exchanges with Mr Straw.
Describing Mr Griffin as “the Dr Strangelove of British politics”, Mr Straw said he was “a fantasising conspiracy theorist”, adding that “British people will have nothing to do” with him.
Hitting back, Mr Griffin said: “My dad was in the Royal Air Force during World War II and Jack Straw’s was in prison as a conscientious objector.” This led to more boos from the audience.
However, Mr Straw was loudly cheered when he replied: “We only won World War I and World War II because we were joined by millions of blacks and Asians from around the world.”
One young black man in the audience described Mr Griffin as “disgusting”, and Mr Griffin then denied that he had ever said that blacks “walk like monkeys”. Later, he said former British prime minister and war leader Winston Churchill was Islamophobic.