Last night a man hardly anyone has heard of, who leads a party hardly anyone votes for, spoke views hardly anyone believes or agrees with, whilst appearing on a programme that hardly anyone normally watches. This may be blunt, but it’s true.
Here are some facts:
Only 64% of people have ever heard of Nick Clegg, so how many have ever heard of Nick Griffin – and how many will remember him next month? In the recent European Elections the BNP polled sixth, despite the expenses scandal, despite the proportional representation, despite the issue of Europe, and despite the recession, to win two seats – count them; one, two – out of a possible 69.. That’s BNP 2, everyone else 67. Even as a protest vote that’s pathetic, especially in a PR election for a largely powerless body (i.e. voters have nothing to lose). I’ve heard of a long march but that’s ridiculous. They were even beaten by the Greens, who’s vote also increased at nearly twice the BNP's rate. Neither are likely to be walking into Downing Street any time soon (they don’t even contest enough seats!).
I cannot find a statistic or poll about how many people in the UK deny the Holocaust, or semi-deny it as Griffin seems to confusingly claim, but I doubt it is many. I imagine the UK Holocaust denial rate is similar to the rate of people who believe Elvis lives on Mars drinking soup with the Clangers or think their children are being brainwashed by mobile phones/microwaves/vaccines and the only answer is to wear tin foil hats. Basically, not many.
Last night Question Time managed 7.9 million viewers – after being the lead story of the preceding News at Ten and focus of a major media frenzy instigated largely by the Unite Against Fascism protests – but without this hysteria viewing figures would be nearer the usual 2 million viewers. And let’s be honest, these 2 million regulars aren’t exactly a representative undecided audience, are they? In short, had no one made a fuss, very few would have watched – most of last night’s viewers were watching for a spectacle, maybe a fight even, rather than to absorb Mr Griffin’s whacko views.
The whole situation was one of craziness, as placard wielding protesters attempted to cause obstruction, forced entry, possibly physical assault and definitely general annoyance in the name of suppressing free speech from fear that the public – upon hearing Mr Griffin – would suddenly agree and rush to elect him. But, as the eloquent and wonderfully calm Bonnie Greer put it, the British people aren’t that stupid, and “you have free speech or your doomed”. Do they really think the public are going to reject friends, workmates, neighbours and their cultural stars – such as X Factor winners Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke, iconic Bond singer Shirley Bassey, countless sports icons and many more – for Mr Griffin? I personally doubt it.
People can reject views quite easily, they do not absorb whatever opinion they hear – they are human beings, not kitchen roll. Yes the BNP need confronting – but calmly. There really is no panic and creating one only helps them further, as does any attempt to suppress their free speech. They are wrong, so we should not fear their lies - they should fear our truth.
And so as we reject fascist laws against free speech, we have to put up with the ravings of the odd fascist lunatic, and the odd socialist lunatic, and the odd other assorted lunatic who believes that the Royal Family are aliens or that Gordon Brown is a good Prime Minister, safe in the knowledge that debate and discussion will lead to truth and that most people aren’t stupid – despite what the BNP and speech suppressors think.
I guess the lesson from this is that some people are just crazy, and the best thing to do is stay calm, speak sense and move on, because most people aren’t.
