Maybe. I started having two different discussion with two different people and I'm starting to lose track of which point belongs where.



The trouble with labelling something the 'benefit state' is that it tars everyone with the same brush, and there are a large minority (if not the majority) of people receiving one state benefit or another who are wholly deserving of it. When people talk about a war against the welfare state there's a real danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Which is why, IMO, great care needs to be taken with reforms and this will subsequently make them slower to implement than some would like.


I agree with that completely. The problem is how to do it without harming people who have done nothing wrong or ending up with families sleeping on the streets.


I'd say dysfunctional rather than broken. There are still plenty of good things about the UK despite all our troubles.

Big Dave T in "i dont know the answers" shocker.

Sorry, solving the countries issues entirely as they stand currently is one step too far for me, i dont mind admiting that some things are beyond me, not many though!!

neither should any non whites!

oow sorry was that exactly the same comment as above but with a right wing slant instead of a left wing one, thus making it unacceptable

I've been a watcher of Question Time and a listener to Any Questions on Radio 4 for many years now. In all that time I can't ever recollect any non-white or non-Brit participant advocating the forced repatriation of us Brits of northern european descent.

Your analogy is, quite frankly, garbage

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8313680.stm interesting. I agree the BNP should not be given an arena to spout their filth

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8313680.stm interesting. I agree the BNP should not be given an arena to spout their filth

We live in a democracy, two members of the BNP were voted for in free and open elections, as much as I dislike the BNP and everything they stand for, they should and must be involved in debate, they have a mandate to do so.

What he said.

Frankly this half-d attempt to ban them from Question Time on the basis of a dubious technicality is just plain embarrassing.

Quite. And Hain should know better.

Indeed.

His duplicity beggars belief

Makes you wonder if someone put him up to it TBH.

Absolutley..however by inviting the BNP to debate are we not recognising and legitimising them.

Unfortunately they are legitimate, disagreeing with the stance they take doesn't mean you can brand them otherwise, as I said, people have cast votes for them, it makes them legitimate.

Exactly, hopefully with them being involved in debate and in the public spotlight people will see them for what they are.

It would be interesting to see them pushed on wider policy issues, racist bigotry is all well and good as an immigration policy, but it wont reform the NHS (well, the immigration policy would mean we're a few thousand doctors, nurses, porters, cleaners short (to name but a few)

"So, Mr Griffin, were the BNP to gain power in the UK, how would you see our foreign affairs and relationships panning out, and what shape do you see for a future Commonwelath" I can hear the stuttering now!

Just look at [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/BNP_uk_manifesto.pdfThe BNP Manifesto[/url from the 2005 general election, it's a real hoot

They already are, sadly.

Get them on there, ask lots of awkard questions and get them shown up for what they are. Far better than banning them or trying to get them thrown out on a technicality.

Yup

Would love to get Griffin on one of those ancestry programmes!

How tempting would it be to tell the producers you want to ask a question like this, then wait for the cameras to roll before standing up and saying:

"So, Mr Griffin, how come you're such an enormous bell end?"

The facts speak for themselves though, so you wouldn't need to highlight that to him. What you could do is ask how "voluntary repatriation" could ever save money, he'd not be able to answer.

Aye. What is a big problem is that the BNP are going to become more and more popular as time goes on. I am not sure it will be for racist or xenophobic reasons either, rather than general hatred of the establishment.

And that is a real problem, they are now a "legitimate" protest vote, people are sick of Labour, the Tories have no real credible policies and the Liberal Democrats couldn't be trusted to run your local Parish Council, let alone the contry.

Throw into the mix that Politicians are seen as lower than Estate Agents and you kind of see the problem.

The Matt Bianco/Five Star trap. Like it!

My parents friends voted for them in the last European election, asked why they answered cos they are sick of the 3 main stream parties and wanted someone different in. One of them then went on to have a life saving operation by a non British Surgeon, oh the irony

I voted UKIP for the same reason. Theyre all as bad as each other imo for a variety of differing reasons.