I most probably am, I could very well make do with out half of the stuff I own.

And I'm sure enjoying that hot meal, and the 'plenty' of ale when I can, would almost certainly push me to £50 a week

I can fully understand what you are saying though. But I honestly do not think £15 would be enough to sustain me. Not so that I wouldn't become malnourished anyway!!

Explanation for those who don't understand this off topic and entirely pointless post, for which I doubly apologies for making longer...

"Over 9000" is an Internet meme from many years ago, originating from a Dragon Ball Z clip.

"I see what you did there" is also a meme, but I dunno where from

"X is x" is also a meme.

"Oldfag" is an insult / complement for someone who has spent years and years and years on random image boards, or possibly forums.

Only because of the tax! Remember, I said "no tax". Ale is about 10p a jar without tax.

OMG!! I want!!

Well, maybe on that basis, and I missed the bit about tax, I reckon living on around £15 a week is most probably viable! If a little tight...

Question Time was a fascinating program to watch. I would imagine it has probably just had its biggest audience for years, if not ever.
This Week afterwards was also quite good. If you like Dianne Abbot and Michael Portilo.

Mr. Griffin certainly didn't come out well without the normal political stage management. The hand wringing and whatever he was doing with his bottom lip throughout the program did nothing but make him look evasive, slimy and ridiculous.
Of the three other politicos I think that the Lib Dems came out best but it wasn't exactly a victory for any of them. The best person on the panel, as others have said here, was Bonnie Greer. I especially liked her invitation to Mr. Griffin to come and see the British Museum.

I do however also see the point Dianne Abbot made on TW afterwards. While Mr. Griffin didn't come out of that well the entire spectacle could also be viewed as a very public verbal lynching both by the panel and the audience. Rightly or wrongly, that's going to make him appear as something of a victim to a small proportion of the audience. Whether that's only within his core support group remains to be seen. Lets hope the BNP's electoral support doesn't go up as a result.

Was the BBC right to have Mr. Griffin on? IMHO yes they were. The BNP have got electoral support but, more importantly, it's only by exposing their (or any political parties) policies to the scrutiny of merciless public debate that their true beliefs will be found (regardless of what they want people to believe).
So, anyone thing Mr. Griffin will be appearing on Newsnight for a cosy interview with Paxman any time soon?

My view point on the program.
Jack Straw get the funk out. You were as useful as Ofcom are.
Nick griffen came out about even, as for every stupid thing coming out of his mouth was countered by the constant hostility from everyone (unsuprising i Know).

The reason for the rise of the BNP and any radical party across the world is when "normal" polticians forget to address the needs and concerns of the the voters. If people want less crime, better housing and a job but are not seeing that from the main parties then they will look elswhere.
Its no use saying "oh arent the BNP scum",as in some areas they are the only people listening to the concerns of the voters.

As I was saying to a friend this morning, the biggest worry is if the BNP fully "appear to" move over from there NF/ultra racist past (updated constitution etc) and get a charismatic leader in, who doesnt have the baggage Nick Griffen has.

When I started, and Jack Straw got the first question, he seemed to be overly nervous himself, and was faltering a bit. I felt that if this is the best he can do, then the programme will be a coup for the BNP. If Griffin can run around this man, then what hope have the other panelists.

Thankfully, he picked up. He even offered Griffin, as Justice Secretary, to explain his change of mind on Holocaust denial. Griffin declined, citing that the French and Germans would be after him. Straw said he’d talk to them. Griffin still declined to explain himself.

I think the heroine of the hour was Bonnie Greer. She played him like a virtuoso. She kept calm, but was incredibly incisive. What you clearly don’t want to do is upset a black American woman. She nailed him on the KKK, the definition of “indigenous” and the history of Britain. I have to say that the programme was really about Straw, Dimbleby, Griffin and Greer. The other two were not as good - I was hoping the LIb Dems would have sent someone a bit more robust, and I can see the mischief of having the Muslim conservative on the panel, but I feel there was an axe being ground.

Griffin seemed nervous from the start. You could see him wringing his hands, and he was clearly trembling at times. Nervous? Wouldn’t you be? He’s been pulled out of his self-affirming bubble into the real world and has been brought to account. And he was found severely lacking.

I started watching the Daily Politics afterwards, and as davrosG5 says, Diane Abbot’s point about this programme going down differently in Burnley is a valid observation. We’ll have to see what happens in the respect. I’ve not seen all of that programme yet, but I intend to watch it on iPlayer.

Top marks to BBC’s political editor NIck RObinson on te news before Question Time. He was talking about this and the rise of the BNP, and he said (in not so many words), that the reason the BNP is on Question TIme is because they got voted in to power, and if people don’t like it, they should get out and vote. The BNP’s rise is in mostly due to voter apathy.

I think all the panellists managed to drop the ball to a degree on the Jan Moir question.

Bonnie got the 'right to say it' part out eloquently, and I'm agreed with her on that.

However, no one pointed out that the article itself was (subject matter aside) really badly written. It was almost entirely speculation and fairly far fetched speculation as well, and her entire point (the end of the utopia of civil partnerships) was based on one single instance out of however many thousand that have gone ahead. So let's be lambasting the incredibly poor journalism as well.

The BBC has a Have Your Say on this programme. Naturally, the comments are poorly written, and the spelling in places is atrocious. I suspect a good few of those posts are from BNP members and supporters.

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread. ... 1023102645

Meaning?

I haven't seen the program as I was in Pripyat at the time, fragging the Russian Military, but I may well watch it on iPlayer.

I can see how ordinary people can be swayed by the BNP. Let me make one thing 100% clear- I am not racist, but at the end of the day, this is the United Kingdom, aka Great Britain. How we got great is by persecuting half of the world and I am one more person who agrees that things are better as they are but we now seem to have gone so far the other way that we bend over backwards to accommodate every other race, religion and creed.

The British government and ergo the British people and everyone who works for any organisation in Britain is expected to be so aware of racist issues that we daren't speak out against other creeds, lest we are branded as racist. Take this as an example.

I have a friend- he's more of a family friend as his wife and my wife are close friends and colleagues- who is a civil engineer and clearly high-up in his organisation. He is working away most of the time and as such is in areas where people of many other races are far more prevalent than around here. He had a couple of lazy and useless people working for him from an "ethnic minority". He either pulled them up for being useless and lazy or even tried to get them sacked. They pulled the race card and he was absolutely horrified. A white, British worker couldn't do that, he'd simply be kicked off site.

I don't live in an area where there is a high percentage of other nationalities- the second most common ethnic background around here is probably Liverpudlian- and so I don't know all that much about racial tensions on a day to day basis but I am sure that it is sh!t like the above that drives ordinary people into the arms of Nick Griffin's lot.

To me, it's a bit like the Green Party although not so hippy. The Greens have many good ideas, I am sure, but for every one who'd like us to use more renewable energy sources, there is probably one who wants us to live in caves and eat lentils and turnips while wearing clothes weaved from grass. People are attracted to the idea of saving the planet while not realising that if the Greens ever came to power, we'd never be able to drive a car, watch TV or cook food on a gas cooker if some of the more radical elements got their way.

Meaning that it is common practice for pressure groups to join forums and make posts that echo their group’s views. If the recent publicity has not been to their liking, you will get a shed-load of them mobilised to voice a more positive view point.

The BNP is currently taking a “softly softly” approach with their language, and you will no doubt have heard the “I am not a racist but…” before talking about “them lot” coming “over here” and doing whatever it is “they” do – normally getting a job and being paid for it, taking that job from the hard done-by unemployed who would not touch that job with a barge pole. An audience member of QT last night worked with immigrants and cited an example where a well qualified doctor took on street sweeping jobs whilst learning English. She didn’t say “indigenous” but certainly hinted that the people she worked with took on jobs that others more native to these shores would not do.

GIven the following (gleaned from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8305906.stm)


And that the accompanying TV news broadcast available here -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters ... _whit.html
which expands on the literacy problems in such areas - some so bad the people could no read the leaflets being distributed (average reading age of 7), I think it is fair to say that there is a significant proportion of BNP supporters who are illiterate. If those people are commenting on the BBC programme, we can expect the spelling, grammar etc. to be off kilter.

Are all BNP supporters poorly educated sink estate residents? No - Griffin is Cambridge educated (earning a 2:2 according Greer who had clearly been doing some homework), and no doubt others in the BNP stayed on at school, and went on to further and higher education. However, the grass roots supporters are a different kettle of fish, and they will be mobilised. Some may have even watched the programme.

Times of economic distress often give rise to right wing 'They took his job!' </southpark> kinds of thinking.
It's shouldn't be a surprise that given the events of the last year, and a war with little home support to boot, that people start looking for alternatives.
Although I never met the man (well, not that I can remember, he died when I was a few months old) my grandfather was a black shirt.
After seeing where the policies he once eschewed led people after the war, he gave up teaching and became a very left wing bus driver.

This country, for all it's isolationist islander thinking, doesn't sit well with fascism when it comes down to it.

Well, he’s complaining to the BBC about his treatment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8322322.stm



But he has to expect that. Given the very nature of the group he represents, their views and policies, he is always going to get that kind of treatment.

I'd argue that it was Dimbleby's job to keep things ticking over as usual no matter who's on the show - I've certainly never seen a QT that centred around one panellist like last night's did.

It's up to the producers and the BBC overall to do what they collectively think is best for the show, but it's a hell of a coincidence that the BNP got so much BBC news coverage just before QT apparently decided to grill a political leader in particular...