Comments on: The truth doesn’t always win

By: Salman Shaheen

Salman Shaheen — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:51:23 +0000

I suspect Abbott and Cruddas would have refused. Jack Staw might have abandoned the committment to No Platform, but others, like Peter Hain and Alan Johnson still refuse to take part in any debate with Nick Griffin.

By: Owen

Owen — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:16:33 +0000

Oh and yes, formatting in comments is rubbish. I think WordPress doesn’t expect commenters to be literate enough to manage paragraphs.

By: Owen

Owen — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:15:52 +0000

My conclusion was pretty much meant to be that it’s naive and, as you say, facile to believe that being right is sufficient to do well in a debate. Put like that, it does seem trivial, but there seem to be a huge number of people who have been trying to argue that getting Nick Griffin on Question Time is a fantastic idea because he’ll get shown up. Given that, (and variants on the same theme when it comes to climate change denial, creationism or pretty much any other conspiracy theory you care to name) it seemed worth saying. I’m not saying Griffin should have been banned from Question Time necessarily – just that we shouldn’t be so blithely optimistic about the prospect. I’m actually agnostic about both your supplementary questions. I wouldn’t have a problem in principle with non-fascist political parties or even the BBC having their own versions of No Platform – if the evidence suggested that was the best way to deal with the BNP. If confronting them in public debate looks like a better option, then by all means do that. (I realise that having a No Platform policy but remaining otherwise politically neutral could be tricky for the BBC, but probably not much more tricky than its current situation).

Perhaps more importantly, though, Jack Straw? What the hell are Labour thinking? Why couldn’t they have got someone decent, like Diane Abbott or Jon Cruddas?

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:08:43 +0000

I apologise for the lack of paragraph spacing there, apparently a blank line in the comment box doesn’t equate to a blank line in the comment?

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:07:27 +0000

I think you’re right in your argument, but I’m not sure what your conclusion is, or whether you can support the conclusions you hint at. It’s absolutely true that the idea that the truth will always win is facile, and that Nick Griffin might perform relatively well on Question Time. But that in itself doesn’t mean the answers to either of the two main questions in all this are ‘no’. Those two questions are ‘Should the BNP be invited on to Question Time?’ and ‘Should representatives of the other parties (i.e Jack Straw) agree to appear with them?’

As to the former, it’s only tangentially related to your argument, since what the BBC should do isn’t about how best to defeat the BNP. It’s about whether they’re doing their job right. I think they are. They’re trying to be politically neutral, and as difficult as that is for the media to acheive, it’s still valuable.

The other question is mainly about political strategy. Claiming that some ideas are just so objectionable that people should make it a point of principle not to listen to or engage with them is a cop-out. Not engaging in a private debate on principle is just silly (but different from doing so because you find it unpleasant to, which is reasonable). Public, political debates are another matter because of the whole ‘oxygen of publicity’ deal, but I don’t think that works in this case – not because a debate with the BNP would be easily won and smash any support they have through the POWER OF THE TRUTH, but because not debating them wouldn’t improve matters. Refusing to debate them may reaffirm the idea that they’re forever condemned to the political fringes with people who already want nothing to do with them, but to the people who are drifting towards them, it simply looks like cowardice or arrogance (or both), and reinforces that drift. Engage in the debate, and you at least get the chance to pull them back towards the centre. It’s unfortunate that you don’t win political battles by being right – but you don’t win them by running away, either.