It’s not often that matters solely encompassing political affairs of the British Isles make lasting impressions throughout the course of the day. The fickle nature of trending topics tends to guarantee that almost precisely at the moment we choose to tackle one in blog form, it disappears. Today, however, “BBC” and “Nick Griffin” have managed to stay afloat atop our fair list of topics. On first glance, these two seemed separate. We thought perhaps the BBC was trending because Monty Python is celebrating their 40th year of hilarity, and maybe everyone in Britain was checking feverishly to see what time a special is going to air on BBC…and not really knowing who Nick Griffin is, we figured that maybe he was a new dynamite contestant on Britain’s Got Talent. Upon further investigation this could not be further from the truth.
It seems that Nick Griffin is a rather controversial figure across the pond as the head of the rather exclusive (in a negative way) right wing political party known as the BNP. Hoards of Brits are outraged over the BBC’s decision to allow his whites-only party its fair share of air time, or as it’s put “Question Time,” to voice their political views, in spite of protests by those with both political and moral opposition. Opinions on the free speech front can be heard as echoes of digital displeasure from as far North as the Orkney Islands all the way to the Channel Tunnel entrance near Dover. The social web is aflutter with strong feelings as people like @Furbylina who wishes she could be at the BBC protesting the BNP and to afford Nick Griffin the opportunity to wear a little egg on his chin.
Meanwhile, others like @RyanPilbeam see this as not necessarily a victory for free speech, but certainly an exercise in it that should be tolerated.
The entire episode has an air of familiarity to it. I think I remember something happening in America back in August and September, with people holding up Nazi flags and racist signs and talking of all things…Healthcare. While this debate doesn’t have the same issue at the center of it, it does raise an interesting question over the limits of free speech and when or if we can legally restrict the speech of another.
Britain. It’s just like America but with funny accents and a different way to spell, humour.
