Good morning.
Question Time attracted 7.8 million viewers at its peak on Thursday night. So many people took an interest in what was happening. But during the broadcast I was with two people with a special interest in it.
Alan and Tom are neighbours in Shrewsbury. Alan is a big BNP supporter and Tom is fervently opposed. A few months back, in the wake of our iPM opinion poll on neighbourliness, we brought them together for their first real conversation in 18 years. They had a sharp and frank discussion in our Shrewsbury studio about their politics. You can hear it in full and read listeners' reactions here.
We wondered how Alan and Tom felt about Nick Griffin being on the programme, so I paid them a visit at their homes, before during and after Question Time.
Email us
Our Twitter
Join our Facebook group
Listen to iPM
Technorati
Google
Ice Rocket
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~53~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
Interesting programme Eddie. Alan came across as bigoted and bias and Tom open minded, though I didn't agree with his objection to Griffin being on QT. It smacked of the same philosophy as the woman interviewed by PM in the crowd beforehand who said, "There comes a time when 'freedom of speech' has to stop".
Very good of you to give up your 'Thursady' evening, especially during such an important TV interview. You'd be welcome here anytime (I did have "on the sofa" but that seems to have indiscreet connotations!)
Complain about this comment
This morning's IPM about Alan and Tom in Shrewsbury was absolutely brilliant. Magnificent real journalism, congratulations to the PM team for setting it up, and to Eddie Mair for handling it with such astounding aplomb.
Eddie had to do the road-crossing to get this piece of art. The show exposes what is going on opposite ends of this Motorway (they are today's Grand Canyons, ahem). Alan, self describes himself as an "old codger", and is at heart a mostly tolerant person, but wants to protect his right to be intolerant. Tom, a younger sort, has been taught that he and nobody else has any right to be intolerant, and unwittingly has focussed all his own innate intolerance on Intolerance itself!
Tolerance and Intolerance. They don't take plurals, but what could be more Plural than that?
Complain about this comment
Just listened to the Question Time reply on YouTube with Nick Griffin
Despite this odious man's repellent views I thought the programme was very disappointing. Dimbleby was clearly out for his blood rather than letting him dig his own hole, Jack Straw is a complete wimp and the other two MPs weren't much better (the American lady academic was terrific and the only one who saved the day). Couldn't the BBC have asked some of our more articulate memebers to have joined - Frank Field, Ken Clark or even dear old Red Ken? The audience seemd to have been particularly ill chosen - even when Griffin made some points worth discussing eg Islam in the UK etc they just booed and whistled or yelled questions at him. An absolute shambles and I suspect that all the BBC have done is to stir up sympathy for the BNP. Hopeless.
Complain about this comment
Good heavens! I've been Modded! Mods, please send me what I said so I can re-phrase it. I suspect it might be concerning the use of the word 'bigot', rather than my invitation to Eddie.
Complain about this comment
*Good Morning*
Eddie...thanks for the excellent information on this
on going story...
~Dennis Junior~
Complain about this comment
Something was nagging at the back of my mind after watching the programme and I have read many blogs and the press after the last two days as well as BBC coverage and it finally hit me and it really gets to the nub of why the BNP are enjoying an increase in popularity.
Most of the audience were anti BNP, but that's fine as I am sure most voters are, however from possibly an over representation of people from ethnic minorities and I am from one myself (Romany), can everybody there say for certain that their community is without sin and can justifiably cast the first stone? Of course they can't and in reality it starts to look like a United Nations of people ganging together to Brit bash, or more specifically working class English.
Shame on your mob mentality.
Complain about this comment
Yoo Hoo, Mods! Anyone there? Please send me an email with my comment @1 so I might re-phrase it.
Complain about this comment
In message #3 'capricorntwo' wrote: "the American lady academic was terrific and the only one who saved the day".
Hah! Since the only "American lady" on the panel was Bonnie Greer I assume this is the person to whom you are referring (although she is not an "academic" - appears to be more a media luvvie type). In which case I totally disagree with your assessment - I thought Bonnie Greer was truly dreadful. She only seemed to be interested in making snide remarks, scoring cheap points and pulling silly faces. She is also pretty dim when it comes to the glacial history of Britain - the southern half of England (including London from where the programme was broadcast) was never covered with ice during the last glaciation and the area was populated with humans (Homo sapiens) 17,000 years ago. Also, did she really say that only Neanderthals were in Britain at that time? Wrong again Bonnie - Neanderthals are thought to have died out in Britain about 30,000 years ago.
In addition to arrogance and ignorance, I would accuse Bonnie Greer of hypocrisy - she was intentionally rude about Nick Griffin only gaining a 2:2 degree (from Cambridge University) therefore I assumed that she must have some impressive qualifications. Therefore, after the programme, I looked Bonnie Greer up on Wikipedia and was surprised to find that she does not appear to have any significant qualifications at all!
I also noted that she was re-appointed to the British Museum's Board of Trustees and then promoted to Deputy Chairman by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown - yet another example of Brown's appallingly bad sense of judgement.
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS