A dark day at Buckingham Palace as Nick Griffin swings by

Our head of state offers champagne and tea to an unashamed Holocaust denier.

By James Macintyre Published 22 July 2010 11:50

Whatto whatto! The day has come around when Nick Griffin, the cranky leader of the racialist British National Party, will swan into Buckingham Palace to snigger and hobnob with the cream of British society.

The reports today are focusing on Griffin's decision to accept the invitation, which seems to me inevitable, even though he previously said that his presence at such an event would "embarrass" the monarch. But this seems to me to be getting it the wrong way around.

When I wrote about this rather sickly little gathering in June, I quoted a Palace spokesman as justifying the invite by saying:

He [Griffin] was eligible to nominate himself as a guest as an elected member of the European Parliament. Buckingham Palace would not discriminate against elected representatives of the European Parliament.

Let us state, yet again, that no matter what kind of "breakthrough" the BNP enjoys -- and the election in which it gained an MEP brought a mere 1.3 per cent increase in support -- it is not a "normal" party, infested as it is with convicted criminals and people who judge people on the basis of the colour of their skin.

Shame on the faceless cretins who organised today's encounter.

Tags: Monarchy BNP

More from James Macintyre

13 comments

Thu, 2010-07-22 13:01 — John (not verified)

Regardless whether you personally like Griffin and the BNP he was democratically elected by voters in this Country.

Unelected officials should not be deciding which democractically elected politicians should be allowed to attend and which shouldn't be. If you extent an invitation to all MEP's that applies regardless of whether you may personally find their views abhorrent. Frankly plenty of Labour supporters find Conservative views abhorrent but it wouldn't be right to write a column advocating baring Conservative MEP's from such an event.

If you accept a democratic system you also have to accept the voters choice, even if you personally disagree with the result.

Thu, 2010-07-22 13:29 — Geoff (not verified)

James, on the quiet you must be a BNP supporter. Look at all the publicity you give Nick Griffin. What about all the other 7999 irrelevant guests.

Sun, 2010-08-08 06:27 — stuart (not verified)

could not agree with you more felix.funny how iran seems to hold these holocaust denying conferences just lately.

Thu, 2010-07-22 11:55 — ROBERT TAGGART (not verified)

Spiffing !

Sat, 2010-08-07 01:46 — felix (not verified)

'Our head of state offers champagne and tea to an unashamed Holocaust denier'.....
I suppose that means no tea for members of the MCB, the Muslim Council of Britain which is full of Holocaust deniers and Judeophobes.
hmmm I wonder?

Thu, 2010-07-22 22:57 — jeremiah

Nice one Queenie. In banning Nick Griffin you have played right into his hands.

He can now spout the establishment are against him etc. Like him or not he was elected and has the same rights as any other politico.

By singling him out for special treatment all the palace has done is affirm the beliefs of the BNP's core support.

I can't wait to hear this the next time he is on QT!

Fri, 2010-07-23 00:46 — stuart (not verified)

it really makes me laugh and sometimes puke at the rants of these lefty middle class creepy liberal facists that seem to infest the media like macintrye and his cronies and let me explain why,i dont know nick griffin nor do i care about him,but one thing i know and i might be wrong so far he has killed no muslims,now on the other hand new labour and the torys both agreed on launching 2 wars that have killed maybe up to 1 million muslims in iraq and afghanistan and also could be accussed of inciting religious and racial hatred within the muslim community in the uk towards the west as a direct result of these wars, circa 7/7,so all this left wing hysteria about griffin is really pointless and in fact quite boring because he will never gain power that i would bet my house on, but what worries me is the war mongering fascists who are in power of whatetever colour get away with crap that griffin and co could only dream of,as for mcintrye umm he is a bit of a jumped up little self important establishment patsy and yes man to both labour,the torys and that other party the liberal dummocrats ha ha ha...

Fri, 2010-07-23 02:25 — Daniele1

John:
A good thing you are there to teach us about Democracy.
But why do you suppose the rest of us think that Griffin should have democratic rights? because a few morons elected him? So what? Hitler was elected too. See what he did with Democracy once he had used it to get elected!
stuart:
Your nonsensical rant might begin to make some sense if you went on a literacy course to learn about punctuation.
Btw, "lefty..liberal facists" is like saying something is red and yellow and blue.These words are all opposite of each other. While you are at it, learn some political history..or just shut up.

Fri, 2010-07-23 03:42 — stuart (not verified)

ohhhhh danny girl,i am feeling the wrath of the facist liberal left but you mistake me for a griffin supporter, how bizarre since if griffin got in power i would be on the first boat back to eire due to my irish heritage,ok hands up i am probably the only working class person giving views here and yes my lack of eduacation and bad punctuation and grammar is franky not good enough and i apologise for that but we all cant go to eton can we dear,as for politacal history ummm not interested i live in 2010 not 1910 and the issues that affect working class people like me and others in this cruel politacal fascist system we live under,danny girl can i ask you a question?? you dont mind me calling you danny i hope,anyway danny did you vote for nicky clegg andt he liberal dummocrats?? i wonder..soz about my puntuation dear..

Fri, 2010-07-23 03:50 — stuart (not verified)

i hate it when politicians say you cant fit a square peg into a round hole aka jack straw,god they do my head in when they quote that.