Yesterday, Nick Griffin put his foot in a trap. Today, not only did the trash that pretend to govern this unfortunate country hand him a get-out-of-jail-free card, they cooperated in giving him the most fantastic amount of free publicity since I can't even remember when. God knows I don't think much of the individual and collective mind of the morons in charge, but even by their deplorable standards, the Day Nick Griffin Went to Question Time will go down in the annals of suicidal stupidity, somewhere between the Republican laissez-faire economic policy of the nineteen-twenties and the West's promotion of Iranian "democracy", under the benevolent gaze of Ruhollah Khomeini, in the age of Jimmy Carter.
Background. Every Thursday, the BBC broadcasts a tame debate program called "Question Time", in which some politicians and a token non-politician discuss current issues in the presence of a crowd of supposed ordinary citizens. This crowd tends to share the "progressive" mindset of BBC producers, and so does the extraordinarily biased conductor, David Dimbleby (the ultimate establishment figure, son and brother of royal BBC correspondents). Guests who deviate from the mindset, especially in a conservative-with-a-small-c direction, are not only rare, but visibly put there as tokens, indeed as targets. The last Question Time that made an impression was the one immediately after September 11, 2001, when the so-called public of ordinary citizens, subtly baited by guests and conductor, exploded into such a chorus of anti-American hatred that the astonished and already shaken US ambassador came close to tears. So the truth is that not many members of the public, even among the politically literate, take Question Time seriously. Inexplicably, however, politicians, journalists and the BBC do. It is one of those class-tribal things that show the distance between ruled and rulers in this country.
It is however a law of the Medes and Persians that political parties that have a significant representation in Britain should be present at this program. And when it became clear that the BNP could no longer be kept out, the British leadership went into a trembling tizzy. I repeat: the public does not take this program very seriously, but they, for some reason, do.
Griffin, in person, is not a pleasant sight. Every point that someone like Barack Obama gains by mere elegance, Griffin loses; till you realize that elegance and grace are actual merits, if minor ones. Griffin is a Cambridge graduate, but the ease of manner that is one of the things that Oxbridge tends to offer seem to have passed him by. There is something menacing about the thickness of his face and his body, which is not exactly fat and not exactly muscle, and which is emphasized by extraordinarily ill-chosen haircuts. He does not look right or smooth in a suit, and always seems on the verge of breaking in a sweat. He is bulky without the friendly or quizzical outside that so many bulky people (including, I hope, yours truly) manage to acquire; he would not look right - like the hefty Tory Kenneth Clarke - in a pub, lifting a pint with friends. (Unless, of course, the pub were the kind that is occasionally mentioned in the local crime news, and which children and decent women tend to shun.) Discomfort and charmlessness come over as being part of his nature. Any sensible PR man, indeed any sensible person with a little perception, would say: "Just let him go up there and ruin himself. Even if he does not make a fool of himself in debate, his appeareance will count against him."
I say this to point out that, even disregarding any points of principle, there is not much to be feared by exposing the British Fuehrer to the gaze of the public. Griffin is no fool, but the personal flaws and inner wounds that must dominate before a man decides to revolt against his community's most basic common notions of decency, are all too easily read in his face. You would dislike and distrust him even if you did not know who he was and what he stood for.
And yet the Establishment went berserk. And they went berserk in a typically British way - the way of people who do not even have the courage to admit to themselves their own perfidy. So the Labour politician Peter Hain tried to have him barred, only to claim that he did not want him totally silenced - only kept out of that particular program. So the Director-General of the BBC. Mark Thompson, replied to the multiple call for exclusion with the following statement: "It is not the BBC's business to exclude people - the Government must do that", a statement whose lack of principle takes shamelessness to a new depth. So professional practitions of inclusivity and diversity, paid from the pocket of the British taxpayer to promote inclusivity and celebrate diversity, demanded that in the name of diversity and inclusivity this really diverse politician should be excluded.
The result? By this morning, the presence of Griffin at Question Time had become - after the disastrous and unfortunately inevitable postal strike that is exploding across Britain - the lead news across the media. Question Time, ordinarily a snooze special that convinces nobody and changes nothing, was for the first time in years on everyone's mouths. Tonight, thanks to Griffin's presence, it is sure to beat all its own previous audience records. Millions of people will turn on, but they will turn on in a spirit of curiosity and even of vague rebelliousness, to watch what the grown-ups did not want them to see. They will consciously or unconsciously be prejudiced in his favour, if nothing else because it is David against Goliath - one tiny splinter party against the might of politics, the media, and the cultural elite. Griffin does not have to conspicuously win the debate now; if he only manages to hold his ground, he will have effectively struck the strongest blow yet for his cause. He will not lose a single vote; those who already voted for him or his party will not be deterred by being effectively treated as pariahs. But if he wins one out of a hundred of these curious, dissatisfied or rebellious spectators - and he is apt to win a lot more - he will have scored a political success. With a General Election only a few months away.
Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad. As I said before, the British elite, "left" or "right" - and the distance between them are smaller than those between most members of most parties in countries where politics is still practiced - has absolutely no moral prestige left with the public. They will not manage to convince anyone that anyone is detestable, just because they say so. If they had left this occasion strictly alone, the few who noticed it would have treated it as a matter of a disreputable and slightly sinister kook stepping into the light for the first time. Because they made a national tragedy out of it, they have turned it into a historical occasion.
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