Quote: Oldrocker @ October 23 2009, 12:18 AM BSTNo, he let you down !
I was half expecting him to turn into Bernard Manning.
Nick Griffin on Question Time Page 19
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ October 22 2009, 11:28 PM BSTCornish.
We should Bazuka them.
Quote: DaButt @ October 22 2009, 11:39 PM BSTSay the man who has included the image of a flag at the bottom of more than 55,000 posts on this forum.
You conveniently missed the rest of my post.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ October 22 2009, 11:42 PM BSTFirst time I ever saw QT without the nagging feeling that all of the big players are in collusion.
That's the most united the parties have ever been. How often do you watch the show?!
Quote: Jack Massey @ October 22 2009, 11:46 PM BSTOh and applause to that fellow in the audience who called him Dick Griffin.
That was pathetic. Should have been edited out.
Quote: Aaron @ October 23 2009, 12:15 AM BSTWe've a lot to celebrate about defeating offensive European federalists. Pity it's not happening now.
Anyway. It's not so much the lack of celebration that bothers me as the lack of any apparent awareness or knowledge whatsoever. The most I saw to mark it was a 7-question quiz on the BBC News website, and a few documentaries on History and Military History channels. Admittedly 204 isn't the roundest, most noteworthy of anniversaries, but the point stands.
I must admit I find your position, assuming I'm reading it correctly, a little bit ridiculous. There are many, many things that the populace at large are ignorant about. From history to science to politics to literature to philosophy, etc...
Of those things, I think that notable dates of battles, a couple of centuries old, against our neighbours and allies are the least of our education priorities.
Quote: Tim Walker @ October 23 2009, 12:05 AM BSTWell, that achieved very little, other than making Nick Griffin appear the most realistic and honest about immigration.
This will be presented as "Griffin exposed" show, and will make the liberal middle-classes sleep soundly tonight, but objectively it wasn't and it won't do anything to end the rise of the BNP.
There will be a lot of people who will have watched this tonight and will have seen a bunch of smug, self-satisfied people (both in the audience and on the panel) ganging-up on this bloke Griffin, who was saying many things they sympathise with.
Jack Straw was the worst of the mainstream politicians tonight. He's always been a wet, woolly-headed man, but he showed just how out of touch the left is on immigration and social policy (despite the fact the man cannot seem to ever give a reply without saying "in my constituency" - like some confused parrot). He summed up the well-meaning liberal's utter incomprehension at the legitimate concerns regarding immigration and culture.
Fair summation, though wooly as Straw was he was no worse than Constable Habib for the Tories. The debate suited Huhne's bullying style and he may even have picked up a few votes for the LibDems. (It is increasingly looking like a huge own goal picking Clegg instead of him as leader).
Quote: Jack Massey @ October 22 2009, 11:56 PM BSTNick Griffin joined a racist party, doesn't this make him a racist.
No.
True. Tony Blair joined a socialist party.
Quote: Chris Forshaw @ October 23 2009, 12:02 AM BSTRight, now that episode really was pointless. It was basically just a group of people screaming RACIST! at Nick Griffin while he sat there and grinned. Nothing constructive in there at all. None of the people on that panel even tried to take him on, every point Nick made (on the very few occasions he was actually allowed to speak) was met with "Yeah but you're racist", even the really stupid stuff he said which could have easily been defeated. They didn't seem to go in there wanting to show him up for what he is by having a civilised discusion, they all just wanted to shout at him so the public would like them.
This is very true.
It wasn't Question Time. It was Let's Gang Up On The BNP Time. Not a single mention of anything topical. Royal Mail, anyone? Griffin was meant to be a pannelist, it's not meant to be a show discussing and ridiculing one single person and/or organisation. Anyone who reckons that the BBC were validating the BNP is a mentalist - it was an all-out attack upon Griffin, not giving him a proper platform.
Quote: Timbo @ October 23 2009, 12:29 AM BSTTrue. Tony Blair joined a socialist party.
Has anyone ever created the UK Klux Klan over there? If so, why not?
Quote: Aaron @ October 23 2009, 12:32 AM BSTThis is very true.
It wasn't Question Time. It was Let's Gang Up On The BNP Time. Not a single mention of anything topical. Royal Mail, anyone? Griffin was meant to be a pannelist, it's not meant to be a show discussing and ridiculing one single person and/or organisation.
Yes, even he Gateley question was turned round into an attack on the BNP. I would have been interested to hear Griffin's views on the topics of the day, as this would have shown us more about the BNPs ability, or lack thereof, to function as an effective political party.
Quote: Tim Walker @ October 23 2009, 12:05 AM BSTJack Straw was the worst of the mainstream politicians tonight. He's always been a wet, woolly-headed man, but he showed just how out of touch the left is on immigration and social policy (despite the fact the man cannot seem to ever give a reply without saying "in my constituency" - like some confused parrot). He summed up the well-meaning liberal's utter incomprehension at the legitimate concerns regarding immigration and culture.
So very true.
Quote: Tim Walker @ October 23 2009, 12:05 AM BSTI voted Conservative in 1992, which seems embarrassing now, but I'm far more ashamed of myself for voting Labour in 1997.
Why are you embarrassed, and ashamed, respectively?
Quote: zooo @ October 23 2009, 12:09 AM BSTWell I guess he is human, and couldn't help having an opinion tonight.
Surely the whole basis of his employment and presence on the show, and of any other presenter's on similar shows, is to be impartial and keep order, not join in?
Quote: Aaron @ October 23 2009, 12:40 AM BSTWhy are you embarrassed, and ashamed, respectively?
Really I should have said that voting for Major was embarrassing at the time. Now it seems like a pretty good decision to have made (imagine if the country had been run by Kinnock, the horror!).
Voting Labour in '97 was not an embarrassing thing to have done then, the Conservatives had run out of steam and Labour were promising a lot of good things (very little of which they actually did). I'm ashamed of voting Labour in '97 now because it helped give them such a huge majority, that it meant that they were always going to get three terms in office.
I didn't foresee in '97 just how much Labour would do that I fundamentally disagree with and which I think has done so much damage to both to the country and our international reputation. 
Don't know who I'm going to vote for next year. Waiting to hear more on Lisbon, immigration and social policies.
Quote: Tim Walker @ October 23 2009, 12:46 AM BSTReally I should have said that voting for Major was embarrassing at the time. Now it seems like a pretty good decision to have made
Well Edwina certainly had a cross in her box !
Quote: zooo @ October 23 2009, 12:14 AM BSTI'm in the minority, but I rather like it when a newsreader/host who should normally be impartial, is so incensed by something that they can't help but show it. I don't really require people to be robotic automatons. I like a bit of passion with my politics now and again.
But when everyone else is also ganging up on the one person, it's not cricket.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ October 23 2009, 12:15 AM BSTWell they named a square after it and put a bloody big collumn up in it.
Haha, very good point!
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ October 23 2009, 12:27 AM BSTI must admit I find your position, assuming I'm reading it correctly, a little bit ridiculous. There are many, many things that the populace at large are ignorant about. From history to science to politics to literature to philosophy, etc...
Of those things, I think that notable dates of battles, a couple of centuries old, against our neighbours and allies are the least of our education priorities.
No, you're not reading it correctly. Trafalgar was merely the first example that came to mind when you queried my view earlier. I'm terrible with dates, names, places, anything like that, so I wouldn't expect the exact date, time and geographical location of every battle we've ever been involved with to be ingrained in every Briton's memory. But even basic understanding and knowledge of our past, culture, etc, is sadly lacking.
Quote: Aaron @ October 23 2009, 12:53 AM BSTBut even basic understanding and knowledge of our past, culture, etc, is sadly lacking.
Thunderous applause ! !