Question time for the British National party
Thousands of protestors expected at BBC Television Centre as BNP leader Nick Griffin arrives to film Question Time
Thursday, 22, Oct 2009 11:53
By Matthew Champion.
The spotlight is on the BBC as British National party leader Nick Griffin prepares to take his place on the Question Time panel in a move likely to draw thousands of protestors to Television Centre.
The filming of the episode this evening and its broadcast later tonight marks the first-time a far-right politician has ever appeared on the programme.
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Scores of security guards will be deployed at the BBC's Wood Lane HQ in west London as anti-BNP organisation Unite Against Fascism (UAF) prepares to picket the centre and leaflet BBC workers.
"We are assembling a wide body of people opposed to what Nick Griffin stands for," a UAF spokesperson told inthenews.co.uk.
"He is a holocaust denier, who wants to put immigrants in boats and create an all-white Britain.
"You can't give a platform for Nazis."
The spokesperson explained that up to 2,000 demonstrators would be present as the episode is filmed at around 17:00 BST. Question Time is never broadcast live, but tonight's edition is being filmed much earlier than normal.
The BBC decision to grant a platform to Mr Griffin, who claimed one of two seats his party won in the European parliament this June, has proved deeply controversial.
Cabinet minister Peter Hain has led calls for the programme to be cancelled on the grounds that the BNP is an illegal entity; having been ordered by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to alter its constitution to allow non-whites to join.
Welsh secretary Mr Hain wrote to BBC director general Mark Thompson to say it would be "perverse" to allow Mr Griffin to appear on the Question Time panel.
This week has seen Cambridge-educated Mr Griffin's party never far from the headlines, which critics say is helping to spread his far-right views to a wider audience.
A group of retired generals first accused the BNP of hijacking military symbols for use in campaign material, leading to Mr Griffin to liken the army figures to Nazi war criminals.
Then an apparently genuine list of the party's members from April this year was published online.
Appearing alongside Mr Griffin on the Question Time panel tonight are justice secretary Jack Straw, Conservative peer Baroness Warsi, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Chris Huhne and black playwright Bonnie Greer.
Protestors will begin picketing Television Centre at 09:00 BST, with the main demo beginning at 17:00 BST as the episode is filmed.
Question Time itself will be broadcast on BBC1 at 22:35 BST.