Quality | 2010.03.11
Hugh Muir's diary
A change is gonna come, Nick Griffin will tell the judge. There may be a long wait
• Six days to discover whether Nick Griffin\'s tinkering with the British National party whites-only membership rule will satisfy the high court. We are no longer that nasty party everybody talks about, he will tell the learned judge. Now we welcome everybody. And that may suffice, but it may not – for two reasons. First, the tinkering changes things a bit, but it may not be enough to bring the party into line with the relevant legislation. And second, it will be hard to convince a judge that the party is a democratic vehicle, just like any other, when its people are issuing death threats. Two have been referred to the police in recent weeks. One by Dominic Carman , Griffin\'s one-time biographer who is standing against him as a Liberal Democrat in Barking. He says his threat came from an "identifiable individual, a BNP supporter". The other threat – a video posted on the web in the name of Wandsworth BNP – featured Equality and Human Rights Commission chief Trevor Phillips, the man the party loves to hate, and suggested he be "dealt with". Both men have urged Nick to intervene and condemn the culprits. For "this is London in 2010, not Berlin in 1933", says Carman. The response: silence.
• On the whole, supporters of the main parties won\'t kill you. But in their way, some of them, even the mild-mannered ones, can be quite volatile. Take Phil Collins, the former speechwriter to Tony Blair, now a senior research fellow at the London School of Economics. Known to be quiet and thoughtful in everyday life, he is a bit of a tiger on the football pitch – and when Labour\'s team, Demon Eyes, played against a side from the Royal Society of Arts and the 2020 Public Services Trust thinktank at the weekend, it seemed safe enough to have Phil in goal. But it wasn\'t. He still managed "a clash of heads" with an opposing player. He was sent off.
• The death yesterday of Winston Churchill\'s grandson and namesake recalls a bitter little story told by late Clement Freud. The then Liberal MP and foodie was on a parliamentary delegation to China where he was dismayed by the lavish attention paid to his MP colleague, Winston Jr. Why the pampering, asked Freud. "Ah, because his grandfather was a very famous man," was the reply. "That\'s the first time I\'ve ever been out-grandfathered," Freud said.
• The Belgians are seething following the verbal assault by Ukipian Nigel Farage on the EU president, Herman Van Rompuy ("a damp rag"), and on Belgium itself. "We don\'t want to be rude, Mr Farage," says a faux poster placed on the web. "But go fuck yourself." And don\'t think that this will be the last time the Ukip Euro chief (pictured) elects to throw a stink bomb at his EU colleagues. Yesterday, having likened Van Rompuy to a "low-grade bank clerk", he apologised to bank clerks. Later the MEP was fined. What\'s going on here? "We are in the business of opposing a hypocritical tyranny," explained an email sent from Farage\'s office to the journalist and author Walter Ellis. "Wearing its characteristic patronising smile, the EU-elite is crushing democracy – while pretending to promote it – and laying plans for global conquest." The union is "threatening world peace," it says, so "courtesy and restraint are not necessarily appropriate." Time for a hero. His name is Farage. Nigel Farage.
• Finally, didn\'t it say everything about the government\'s woes that when the PM was asked to name his favourite biscuit, chaos followed. No answer for an hour, and then a desperate tweet. "Anything with a bit of chocolate," Gordon said. But when Mumsnet asked the same question yesterday, this time of Douglas Alexander, the minister and election coordinator, he was ready for it. "Terrible admission, and not very patriotic, but my favourite are chocolate Leibniz – a slab of chocolate pretending to be a biscuit," he said. "Prefer the dark chocolate ones to the milk ones – and, of course, I hope that they will soon embrace Fairtade." A fine answer. Concise, confident. At last, they\'ve got a grip.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/03/hugh-muir-diary-nigel-farage
