Protesters voice anger over BNP air-time

Protesters gathered outside BBC Radio Merseyside in Liverpool on Thursday to voice their anger at the broadcaster for allowing BNP leader Nick Griffin to appear on the BBC's Question Time.

The multi-cultural protest was led by Merseyside Stop the War Coalition chanting: ‘we are black, white, Asian and we are Jews,’ with the crowd of around 60 joining in. Banners were held up reading: Keep Question Time Nazi-Free.

Rita, who did not want to give her surname, told the crowd to remember the black murdered Liverpool teenager Anthony Walker and those killed during the Holocaust. She said: ‘Nick Griffin is dancing on their graves.’

A Minister from St Mary’s church in Liverpool, who did not want to be named through fear of violent recrimination from BNP supporters, said: “The BNP are completely wrong. We must work together for all humanity.”

BBC stations in Glasgow, Manchester and London, from where Question Time is being broadcast, were besieged by angry citizens who claim that the BNP should not be allowed to appear on the popular politics programme, despite being a democratically elected political party.

‘Freedom of speech is not there to protect fascists and spread hatred,’ said Chris Baker, 22, who lives in Toxteth.

Mark Barker, 36, of Love Music Hate Racism, who regularly protest and organise events to fight back against the BNP, said: ‘The BBC are not obliged to do this, it is not in the constitution. A lot of the people who voted for the BNP didn’t realise they were voting for a racist party...I blame that on Labour and the Conservatives for disenfranchising people.’

The Equality Commission, a government department who promote equality and Human Rights to ‘make a fairer Britain’, along with minister Peter Hain, have asked the BBC to stop Nick Griffin appearing on Question Time after the Commission said the BNP constitution was illegal because it refuses non-white membership. After a court ruling, the BNP have been forced to change their constitution to allow people of race and colour to become members if they choose.

Tom Bramwell, 18, a Journalism and Digital Cultures student at Liverpool John Moores University, said: ‘They're [BNP] a genuine political party and if they have enough supporters to get elected to the EU parliament then the BBC as an independent, impartial broadcaster would be far more in the wrong to prevent them appearing.’