Question Time and the BNP

September 6th, 2009 § 0 comments

You might possibly have seen this in todays’ Times

THE BBC has provoked controversy by giving the British National party a platform for the first time on Question Time, its top current affairs programme.

This development, I think, is inevitable. Now that the BNP has gone and got itself a couple of elected representatives to a higher office than a local government position I don’t see how the BBC can refuse to have either Fat Nick or Andrew Brons it’s flagship political discussion programme without being accused of taking sides, of being political.

Forget what the BNP actually stands for for a minute and just compare them to UKIP in terms of their representation.

UKIP only has MEPs’. They do not have an elected representative in the House of Commons. UKIP appear on Question Time. The BNP only have MEPs’. They do not have anyone in the House, either. They will now appear on Question Time, but just like UKIP, only occassionally.

“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,” said Ric Bailey, the BBC’s chief adviser on politics. “This is not a policy about the BNP. It’s a policy about impartiality.”

Whether we like it or not, the BBC cannot do ‘No Platform’.

Tagged , , ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

What's this?

You are currently reading Question Time and the BNP at Sim-O.

meta