Nazi De Jour

[poliphilo]

We stayed up to watch Nick Griffin on Question Time- as did 8 million others (or should that be nine hundred thousand, nine hundred and ninety eight).

He's a funny looking cove. Squat, fat-faced, with a glass eye (just like Gordon Brown) and a thatch of coarse black hair. When he makes a joke he crinkles up and goes all geeky. 

He's clever enough to want to present himself as a mild-mannered, mainstream politician and emphatically Not a Nazi- a strategy that falls foul of YouTube- but he can't be that clever or he wouldn't believe that the present government is committing "genocide" against the "indigenous" people of Britain. Maybe the word should be "cunning" rather than "clever".  Cunning but stupid is an entirely viable combination.
 
Only in politics could someone so unappetizing become any sort of a star. 

A lamentable side effect of having him on a show like this is that it permits a trio of mainstream party hacks- including the slippery and sinister Jack Straw- to come on like they're the tribunes of the people. 

The viewing figures (nearly three times what this show normally gets) are depressing and I'm sorry I added to them. 

Comments

[oakmouse]

I suspect many other viewers watched for the same reasons you did --- not to support Griffin but to observe him.

His face gives me the creeps in an ill-defined way. But I know one thing: a man with a face like that could be the next Buzz Windrip (Brazelius P. Windrip, the charismatic dictator in Sinclair Lewis' 1930s novel It Can't Happen Here).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Griffin is a preposterous, little man- but then one remembers that Hitler, Mussolini and Franco were also preposterous, little men.

I haven't read Lewis, but I imagine that's pretty much what he was saying too.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Hitler was a preposterous little man - but rose to power when Germany was mired in a deep depression, had a government that was fractious and loosely hung together, and the "ordinary" people felt they had been abandoned.

I'm not saying that Griffin will rise to power - he doesn't have a Spin Doctor like Joseph Goebbels - but as an alleged History Graduate Gordon Brown should look at the parallels and shudder.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, we shouldn't be complacent. There's never been a time that I remember when our democratic system was held in such contempt. Griffin has clearly benefited from this.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Why did people vote for him? Simple. Because he sold himself as an honest "man of the working class" to an electorate sick to the back teeth of what they perceive as rampant greed, hypocrisy, and corruption amongst elected officials. Last night exposed the gap between the BNP's electoral platform and Griffin's weird worldview. Whether those who actually support him notice the difference and care is another matter.

[oakmouse]

Preposterous, little men who rode into power by surfing the wave of their countryfolks' own littlenesses, fears, and anxieties. Griffin knows how to ride that wave, which is truly frightening.

[sovay]

including the slippery and sinister Jack Straw

That sounds like a tricky figure in a folktale.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it just!

Only this guy is very real. He's the Justice Minister or- as one journalist put it theis morning- the unJustice Minister.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

I didn't watch it last night, but after hearing how he felt that he had to face a 'lynchmob' on Question Time, curiosity got the better and I went on iplayer and endured the programme, and it was painful. I suspect Jack Straw has never received so much applause in his life, and Griffin showed himself up for the racist ignoramus he truly is. I wouldn't worry about adding to the viewing figures. I suspect that the majority of those tuning in who don't normally watch the programme, just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I doubt it will have done that much for him or his group. I won't call them a political party because they aren't according to our laws.

Wasn't Bonnie Greer good though? I was most impressed with her. She didn't let him get away with anything. :-)

Was the programme an early Christmas present for his party? Emphatic NO!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Griffin's complaint is clearly designed to get as much mileage out of the event as possible.

Griffin seemed to want to ingratiate himself with Greer (I suspect under it all he's a man who craves approval- a very needy man) but she kept her shoulder turned away from him all the time- except when she was directly addressing him. It was good to have someone there who wasn't a politician- someone who could put the issues in a wider cultural and historical framework.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, Bonnie's body language said it all, and so did his. Highly amusing to watch. Mileage is right. The guy is going to squeeze as much as he can out of this. Not that I think he'll get that much. He clearly doesn't credit the British populace with the brains we were born with, no matter where we were born!! ;-)