Generally thought Nick Griffin came across badly, but the fact that almost the whole programme was devoted to the BNP, and given the relentless attacks on him, it felt hugely one-sided and unfortunately rather self-righteous. It's was a bit like a chance queue up to throw rotten fruit at the Nazi in the stocks.
Griffin made some bad howlers - why not simply state 'I accept that the Holocaust happened' and distance himself from the KKK? Those and the rant late on about the far-left BBC must have made him come across as a bit of nutter to genuinely unaligned people. Unfortunately I suspect he will learn from this and trim his sails for his inevitable next appearance. Perhaps 'exposing' the BNP to debate will simply make them craft their message even more carefully?
As for the UAF demo, whilst I'm glad there was a demo, I think it was stupid to try and break into the studio, and the people shown on telly getting literally dragged out of Television Centre looked ridiculous. However I have no idea what Iain Dale is on about claiming that they used 'fascist' tactics because there was a vaguely threatening chant. a) It's a (rubbish) chant used on about every anti-fascist demo I've ever been on b) it's usually initiated by a perpetually outraged teenage Swuppie who is extremely unlikely to put it into practice c) I can't believe that a West Ham supporter hasn't heard much worse than this ;-) To argue that an aggressive chant on a demo is 'fascist tactics' is to further devalue a word that has already lost much of its meaning.
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