This is the first chance I've had all day to write up my thoughts on the Question Time programme last night. I didn't want to use a photo of Nick Griffin because, quite simply, I'm sick of the sight of his face after seeing it all week plastered over every newspaper and TV screen. Baroness Warsi is much more attractive, and for me, the best speaker last night.
She is sharp and witty and she has an incisive mind. She'd also done her homework and it was certainly news to me that so many Asian people stood by our side during two world wars. I guess the more educated amongst you probably already knew.
I felt Griffin was set up but then the BBC was never going to make it easy for him. Within minutes I was cringing and squirming in my seat. Car crash TV without a doubt and strangely compelling. I honestly turned on the telly with an open mind to watch and I had no preconceptions. I wanted to hear what he had to say and I wanted to believe that he wasn't really racist. He talked crap, not very intelligently, and his comment that "The Klu Klux Clan is a fine organisation" was all I needed to hear to persuade me that the new BNP is much the same as the old one. Only one of his policies seemed to make sense and that was to keep the Olympics in Athens - their place of origin. I've never understood why, when we are so skint as a country, that we are ploughing so much wasteful money into the 2012 event. Why should it matter if it's held here or not? I understand some houses have been demolished to make room for this - and I'm guessing they are mostly white working/underclass who have been moved on. The Londoners among you can probably put me right on this but I'd be interested to know.
Certainly if the games were held in Athens, then China's residents wouldn't have been kicked out of their homes to make way for the event there last year. Anyway, I digress slightly.
The BNP is, unfortunately, gaining the support of mostly white underclass who politicians have ignored and, let's be honest, a lot of bloggers have slagged off. They feel excluded and discriminated against and they see Griffin as the only person who cares about their rights and their plight. Labour is more to blame for the shameless way the party has halted social mobility for these people effectively trapping them without hope of escape - ever.
When one of these families - very much in the minority - has a Baby P case, the majority are tarred with the same brush and knee-jerk reactionary laws are made against them. They are told they are bad parents, they are benefit cheats, and that they are the scum of the earth. Chavs. One such chav, who gave a three year old child a cigarette to smoke, was debated the week before on QT. One person in the audience said it was a good job he had been found out because it would probably end up as another baby P case. This was an asumption based on two things - he smoked and he was a chav. That's why this class of people is so angry and see hope in a scumbag like Griffin. They have no one else. Politicians don't even knock on their doors at election time. They don't think they are worth the effort of reaching.
The BNP can be beaten but we need our main stream politicians to get their heads out of their arses, for want of a better phrase. When I look at the likes of Peter Hain, I just know that won't happen. He doesn't want to make anyhting right. He just wants to condemn, continue to condemn, and say "because I don't like it, you can't do it." Sorry Peter, if you want dignity to return to our people then I suggest you stop looking down your nose at those less fortunate then yourself who you clearly despise.
My initial reaction was that Griffin was such an idiot that he would lose votes and his EU seat. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the case. The news this evening was reporting how people stopped him in the street to shake his hand and how there has been a surge in support for the BNP.
We need more than ever for our main stream politicians to show us they have some talent, some compassion, and they are prepared to listen to make changes that people want.
I know the smoking ban is leading some people to the BNP. By just amending this, a lot of those disaffected and disenfranchised smokers would return to their old parties. There is no reason why they should at present. I would say that voters who have been turned away from their traditinal voting habits because of the smoking ban should vote UKIP. That is a party of hope. It isn't racist. It does knock on the doors of the underclass, the lords, ethnic peoples, and the empirical Britons. It is a party for all and our best hope of squeezing the BNP out.
I am glad Griffin was on, however, because I felt it was time we had the racism debate - a taboo subject for too long - and I felt the air had been cleared. Politcians need to take a very serious look at what is happening in the political process. It isn't about their own personal careers - take note Mr Camoron with your all women shortlist of favourites and the pets you are flying into safe seats - it is about the service they should be giving the British people. Our British people and not Griffin's "British" people. I'm not sure he even knows himself what he means.
Labour MP Diane Abbott hit the nail on the head when she said on This Week - after Question Time - that when Mandleson, Brown, and Blair created New Labour to attract the middle class vote, they were warned it could lose them their core vote. Mandy said these core suporters had no where else to go and so it didn't matter that the Party had abandoned them. Well, Mr Mandleson, are you listening and are you watching? They have found somewhere else to go. This is yet another example of the grave damage you and your party have done to the UK. I hope that you are proud of yourselves. I am sure that when we the voters kick you out, the last place you will want to live is in this hellhole you have helped to create.