Undergraduate Scribblings

It was the storm that failed to materialise and, aside from the protesters outside the various BBC buildings, all that will be really remembered from the night is the lack of substance of Griffin. It is, and remains, a widely held belief that no right-thinking person should share a platform with someone such as Griffin, and it is a view held particularly strongly by those on the left, and I have some great sympathy with that view. George Galloway recently spoke, however, of his change of belief, and that he would now share a platform with people such as Griffin in order to argue against their beliefs. And, from the evidence of last night, I would advocate and support that new stance because there was a danger that, rather than an appearance on the BBC increasing support for Griffin, a continued veiled menacing silence would allow others to fill in their own prejudices into that silence, creating a slow drift in the minority toward his and his party's ilk.

By having Griffin, an elected representative, on air to share his views and beliefs has evaporated that menace and reveals in broad daylight a bunch of cobbled-together nonsense, probably the result of undergraduate scribblings in lecture halls, barely understood then, and made to fit his view of the facts now. I had hoped, however, that it wouldn't have turned into a baiting arena which it certainly came close to, and I had hoped the tone of derision would have been less scornful because, as I have said, people such as Griffin thrive on being taken seriously, and take that away from them and they're left clutching onto nothing but those undergraduate scribblings.