Now that I've had time to watch Question Time (albeit just the first 45 minutes), I can make an informed opinion regarding the goings on with Nick Griffin. Sorry for the belated post.

Despite the first question prompting a very emotional atmosphere within the studio, I think that Nick Griffin's claim that it was just a 'bash the BNP' session is wrong.  Sure, there was a pretty negative view of the BNP, but that's because the majority of people find their views abhorrent, therefore it's right that this should echo in what is viewed.

I think the best bit of the programme was the confrontation between Jack Straw and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.  Unfortunately Baroness Warsi hit the nail on the head and with help from the guy on the front row really stuck it to Jack Straw as to why some people in the UK voted BNP. No matter what 'systems' the Labour government has in place to deal with it, many people are still unhappy.  It was nice to see the Baroness come up with some clear movement on addressing that issue, rather than sweep it under the carpet and carry on.  I don't claim that I support the policy, but rather I support the fact that a political party are finally presenting an alternative to the current state of play, when up til now it appeared as though there wasn't any other option (other than the BNP).

I have seen the video mentioned on Question Time regarding Nick Griffin and the former Klu Klux Klan leader, and it scared me to the core.  It's exactly coverage like this which will wake people up to the true vision of the BNP, and hopefully prevent it from ever gaining further traction in the UK.  Hopefully more people will have watched this video now, and be able to provide an informed opinion when voting.

A nice little interlude between Question Time being broadcast and me getting around to watching it was a little bit of ideological sparring with Councillor Terry Kelly, Lab.  I happened upon a post by him and I think this man provides a very honest and calculated opinion regarding his position on not allowing any organisation such as the BNP airtime on British Radio.  Though I disagree with him, I respect his opinion, and I believe it is an opinion that many other people in the country may share.  It would be interesting to hear other peoples thoughts.

In conclusion, I would hope that the BNP's support dwindles and the major political parties focus on the issues that the electorate are, whether rightly or wrongly, focusing on.  This whole episode has hopefully been a wake up call to get more people engaging in politics and seeing what a mistake it was to get this man to represent us in the European Parliament.  We may object to listen to him witter on national TV for 60 minutes, but we've subjected our European neighbours to this mans opinions in his position as MEP on a regular basis.  Let's make everyone happy and make sure that the BNP representation of our country does not continue.

Working out in a foreign country, doing pretty intensive work doesn't allow me much time for accessing all those things British.  There are many things which I currently miss out on, so having access to the BBC is a very understandable and important part of spending time back with my own culture.  It's therefore not surprising to add that I regularly check the BBC News site where I can, and we get copies of many papers delivered by people visiting us from the UK.

This past week, things got slightly more interesting as I installed a little program on my machine called zsh - with this program, I can type bbc.radio2 and bbc.radio4 and it will connect and start streaming the radio for me.  Those of you using Windows and Mac (and even Ubuntu) might not see this as massively amazing - but when I'm spending 90% of my time using the commandline configuring servers, then having commandline tools for listening to radio becomes much more aesthetically pleasing.

So, I started using that this week, and there's been an awful lot of coverage of this Nick Griffin Question Time saga.  Facebook was alive with people making anti-BNP jokes, saying things like "Nick Griffin stands for racial purity, but his name represents a hybrid of a lion and a phoenix" .etc .etc. People were engaging in politics, and I didn't see one voice in support of the BNP. However, I did see a few voices in support of Freedom of Speech - and it's essential that the distinction is made between the two.  Unfortunately, that's the reason why politicians are attacking the BBC - it appears as though many politicians can't distinguish.

One of the programmes I did manage to tune into was on McCarthyism in the USA.  I didn't manage to catch enough of the programme to quote from it - but in the snippets I heard I ended up with a pretty good example of where we're at today in the UK.  Unless there is clear freedom of speech, we're in danger of following the same path and ending up with our own little version of McCarthyism.

The argument by the BBC is that Nick Griffin is a freely elected MEP, he's representative of a big enough section of our society to have been elected, and therefore the people he stands for have the right to have him speak on their behalf on what is meant to be a political panel show which debates the views of the entire country.

Reading Peter Hain's comments on the BBC this evening only go further to support my argument, and to lay the blame for the success of the BNP firmly on the shoulders of the politicians - who by being so scared of the BNP's sudden appearance on the scene, have decided to try and heavy handedly deny them their right to free speech, rather than freely attacking the cause of their popularity.

If Mr Hain were to appear on Question Time, espousing Labour's policies and attacking those of the Conservative government, then a rise of 1% in the poll the next day for Labour would be seen as disasterous.  Had Nick Griffin come on Question Time and put forward a cohesive argument in support of his views and had widespread agreement, there would have been a rise of decidedly more than 1%.

I believe the rise in support for Nick Griffin (by the fringes) is probably just an indication of the way in which his appearance was handled.  Those people whose vote relies on the government providing for the country (and America has also voted more selfishly since the recession) rather than looking at the bigger picture are placing their support behind the BNP.  Thank goodness for now that it's just a small number, and hopefully through good policy-making and communication the less extreme parties can win back the trust of those fringe voters.

The solution therefore is not to stifle the BNP, treat them like animals and put them in cages - that will just give reason to their supporters to affirm their belief that 'Us Brits' are not being heard.  What needs to happen is for their position to be accepted, and for all parties to work hard at designing policies which will appease the section of the nation that seem to think the BNP is the only answer.

I'd urge anyone who is feeling anti-BNP at the moment to take time to understand this argument.  I may not agree with the opinion of every man whose path I come across, however, I intend to defend his right to say it, and my right to hear it.

Working in India, there are some communities we've come across who will prevent their sons and daughters from seeing or hearing anything 'bad' during their formative years.  They'll read the papers, then burn them to prevent the children's prying eyes.  They don't have access to TV, not access to Internet, and are encouraged to read from a set list of books prescribed for them by their parents.  When they then come out into the real world, how do you think they handle it?

Most can't cope with it and run back to the safe world their parents created, by working in their close community, marrying into it, and distancing themselves as much as possible from the outside world.  Others simply enjoy the freedom, and embrace everything that's made available to them, ignoring morals, safety and self-respect.  Some then realise their mistakes and go back to their communities, tail low - whilst others burn themselves out, or get into a lifetime of destitution.

The way forward is the middle ground - not Gorbachev's "third way" - but a balance of the two.  I'm learning my moral compass the hard way.  I've done things which I'm massively ashamed of, but also things that I'm massively proud of.  There's not a day goes past when I don't feel ill of myself for a mistake, nor pride for an achievement.  Were I not able to make the mistakes I did, I may have not made the mistake at all, or I may have ended up making an even bigger mistake.  However, what I now know to be the truth is that experience and knowledge are the best two weapons against extremism.  If you allow freedom for people to vote for the 'wrong' person, and expect them to vote the 'right' way each time - then you're not giving them true freedom.

I hope that back in the UK, people will wake up to the fact that the country needs to re-engage in politics.  For too long the country has been drifting, by the apathy of her voters.  We need to get involved in politics again, start to clean up the mess in Whitehall, when in an attempt at defense of their jobs, politicians like Peter Hain are attacking civil liberties.  We also need to look at ourselves, and work out why we've created a society where a percentage of the electorate believe extremism is the way forwards.  This is OUR problem.  Fight it.

For my post-election response, see here.

The majority of the following video shows a bit of the bad-side of America.  The main points made are about why America shouldn't increase immigration, and it'll upset the balance of their country, and that wouldn't be good for them.

However, halfway through the talk, the speaker uses 'gumballs' to give an illustration about how much America need to do about 3rd world poverty.  It's a pretty good demonstration of how much population increase is happening.. yet the numbers today are even greater than when the video is published.

I do not endorse these guys views on immigration or anything else, what I do want to look at though is the little gumball example, and wonder if you should be doing a little bit more to help the majority of the world living in poverty.