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Holocaust survivors will confront BNP on Question Time
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- Holocaust survivors and victims of racist attacks plan to confront the BNP's leader Nick Griffin during the programme over his past as a holocaust denier with a conviction for inciting racial hatred.
- Church leaders have expressed their regret that the BNP has been given the opportunity to air its "offensive" views
- Even the broadcasting regulator has questioned the BBC's justification for inviting the party onto Question Time.
The row has been building since the BBC announced last month that it was considering inviting the BNP to send a representative to join the Question Time panel. This was confirmed last week when it announced Griffin would be appearing on Thursday, alongside Bonnie Greer, the black American writer, Baroness Warsi, the Conservative peer, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, and Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman.
Security is being stepped up, with hundreds of police officers drafted in to prevent clashes between left-wing protesters and BNP supporters outside the studio and security guards and plain clothes officers inside ready to prevent any attempts to disrupt the broadcast.
The Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, has now stepped into the row telling David Dimbleby, the Question Time presenter, that the BNP was an "illegally constituted" organisation because it barred black and Asian people from its membership, and that appearing on the show would give the "despicable" party "a legitimacy they do not deserve".
BBC chiefs have insisted the BNP's success in the European election earlier this year, when it won nearly a million votes and returned two MEPs to Brussels, forced it to treat the organisation in line with mainstream political parties by offering it a platform on shows such as Question Time.
The BBC said it was "obliged under our charter to treat all legal political parties registered with the Electoral Commission with due impartiality".
Ric Bailey, the BBC's chief adviser on politics, said: "They got across a threshold that has given them national representation and that fact will be reflected in the level of coverage they will be given."
However, Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, suggested this was a misinterpretation of the rules.
An Ofcom source said: "The BBC were not obliged under the broadcasting code to invite the BNP onto Question Time. There are no rules on political representation or impartiality that apply to the BBC. This is a matter for the broadcaster and it is purely an editorial decision."
The source added: "The broadcasting code says due weight must be given to the coverage of major parties during an election period. This is not the case with the BNP at the moment."
A number of Britain's religious leaders have added their voices to the debate, increasing pressure on the BBC over its decision.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews urged the BBC to withdraw the invitation, even at this late stage. Jon Benjamin, Chief Executive of the Board of Deputies, said: "We all hold dear the right to free speech, but that does not mean that every hateful pronouncement has to be given exposure.
"Of course the BNP's warped agenda has to be challenged, but providing a platform on national television will raise their profile at least as much as, if not more than, it highlights their prejudices."
Over a dozen church leaders in Birmingham, including the Anglican Bishop, the Rt Revd David Urquhart, and the Roman Catholic administrator of the city, the Rt Revd William Kenny, have issued a joint statement condemning the BNP's appearance.
They said: "As representatives of Christian Churches in Birmingham we wish to express our real concern at the invitation given by the BBC to BNP leader Nick Griffin to Question Time.
"The BNP has nothing to do with Christianity and many of its hate filled, fear generating messages are completely counter to the loving challenge of the Christian gospel."
Speaking for the Church of England, the Bishop of Ripon, the Right Rev John Packer, said: "Many Christians have serious doubts about the wisdom of the BBC inviting people onto its programmes with obnoxious opinion which are likely to upset and offend many people, and not just those from the ethnic minorities. Others, like myself, feel its better to confront the BNP openly on a forum such as Question Time rather than let them hide in the shadows. There is a split within the church."
The Muslim Council of Britain said: "We are concerned at the undue attention that the media in general and the BBC in particular is giving to racists such as Nick Griffin. At a time of heightened tension our unhealthy obsession with divisive figures only bolsters their objective to sow discord on the streets of Britain."
The Methodist Church said it would continue to bar the BNP from its own electoral hustings and public meetings.
The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that Unite Against Fascism (UAF), which has organised counter-demonstrations against recent far-right marches in Birmingham, Luton, Harrow and Manchester, has obtained a number of tickets for the show to enable holocaust survivors and victims of racist attacks to confront Griffin face to face. They are remaining unnamed until the show to ensure they gain access to the studio.
In 1998 Griffin was convicted of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred and he has previously questioned the fact that the Nazis murdered millions of Jews, describing the Holocaust as a hoax.
Weynan Bennett, of UAF, said: "The BBC has no right to invite a party that has denied the Holocaust and wants to tear Britain apart based on racial and religious differences. We hope to be able to get people into the audience to confront Griffin over his lies and his party's violence."
The debate over Question Time has again shone a spotlight on the make-up of the BNP, with new details emerging about the violent past of some party activists.
The BNP leadership boasts that it now attracts a broad range of professionals, from teachers to civil servants to clergymen. But The Sunday Telegraph has established that its ranks still includes dozens of people who have been convicted of violent offences.
Among them is football hooligan John de Bono, 21, from St Mary Cray, Bromley, who was jailed for 30 months in March 2008 after attacking rival fans and terrorising passengers on a train.
Richard Edmonds, from Sutton in Surrey, a senior BNP member who serves on the party's advisory council, was given a three-month jail sentence in 1994 for his part in a savage attack on a young black man outside a pub in Bethnal Green, east London.
Ian Meller, a BNP councillor in North West Leicestershire, was fined £400 in 2000 for carrying an offensive weapon. Robert McGlynn, a member in Swansea, was found guilty of racially aggravated disorderly conduct in 2006.
Gerry Gable, of the magazine Searchlight, which works to expose members of the far right, said: "Under Nick Griffin's leadership the BNP has accumulated a long roll of dishonour."
Griffin, who was himself convicted of inciting racial hatred in 1998, but cleared of a similar charge in 2006, said that only a small proportion of his members had previous convictions, far fewer than in the population at large.
He said: "If you take any working class community you will find that thanks to decades of lack of education and the permissive society about 50 per cent of all males have a criminal record. I would be astounded if you found our criminal rate is one tenth of that of the general population."
The continued controversy over Question Time follows the BNP's defeat in the courts last week over its 'whites-only' membership policy.
The party was forced to put in place plans to redraw its constitution so that it can admit black and ethnic minority candidates, after it admitted breaching the Race Relations Act.
Although it had pledged to fight the case, brought against it by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, when the day came its leadership decided on a last minute U-turn and agreed to change the membership rules.
It can be revealed that the climb-down was forced on it by a severe cash crisis which would have prevented the party from taking its legal fight to the higher courts.
The BNP is already tens of thousands of pounds in debt following its decision to spend heavily on this year's European elections, which saw Griffin and Andrew Brons – a former NF ideologue – returned as MEPs to Brussels for the first time.
In an email to members explaining the about-turn, Griffin said: "The costs of fighting such an action against a foe with access to unlimited state (taxpayer) funding would have been prohibitive and pointless because the new Equality Bill, which is set to replace the current law, would have made the BNP's current membership criteria illegal in due course anyway."
However, any decision to admit non-white members could herald a damaging split within its ranks.
Modernisers within the BNP will seize on the change to reinforce the move towards 'respectable' electoral politics away from its embarrassing past as a violent racist organisation.
But hard line activists, many of whom have links with neo-fascist and Nazi groups, are likely to see it as a betrayal of its core ideology, which demands the return of non-white Britons to their ancestral homelands through what it calls "voluntary repatriation".
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Originally Posted by RoyBatty
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