BNP on Question Time

I was going to write something about the BNP on Question Time, but got distracted by the BNP website which addresses the question of "is the BNP racist?" with the most fantastically idiotic answer possible. They essentially list a load of Jewish-only or black-only organisations and cry out - "Have you noticed how the media NEVER calls any of these organisations “racist” even though they are openly organised along ethnic lines and stand for the rights of their respective communities?" 

There is a slight difference, I think, between a local organisation set up to educate and support African Caribbeans in Watford and a white-supremacist political party who are the throw of a very small stone away from donning swastika-emblazoned uniforms and goose-stepping up and down the House of Commons. Does the Metropolitan Black Police Association strive to rid the Met from any white officers? No. They don't. In fact, most of these societies and organisations were set up to offer support to minorities in Britain from racist abuse from bigoted little shits just like Griffin and his Klan.
It goes without saying that of course I think the BNP are a foul little party. Everything they stand for is abhorrent. A vote for them is a vote backwards. But still, I'm glad they're finally being allowed on Question Time.
Censor the rightful opinion of a racist party like the BNP and what do we achieve? Do we pretend that racism doesn't exist? Bury our heads in the sand and pretend that there aren't 800,000 people in Britain that support the party? As one-time US vice-president Hubert Humphrey said - "The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously." The BNP have a right to be heard. As does anybody in this democracy. The irony of the situation being that the members of Unite Against Fascism who do everything in their power to silence the party, are the first to complain when their right to free speech is infringed upon by police once kettled and beaten at a protest. It is a foul hypocrisy. 

The problem isn't whether the BNP go on Question Time or not. The problem is with the 800,000 voters who think the BNP's xenophobic nationalism is worth their vote. Half of them aren't even aware what it is they're voting for, as the BNP aren't given any platform. There are ways to change their minds, and one of them is to grill Griffin on air and make it blatantly apparent to all that the BNP's only policy is "Jews & foreigners out!"

To end with a particularly well known quote usually attributed to Voltaire - "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."