The Pope ‘forgets’ Northern Ireland

The Pope has paid a lot of attention to us Brits this year. He visited Scotland and England in September, and today he delivered BBC Radio 4′s Thought for the Day. All creatures great and small have delivered this daily address over the years. Though none as great in the eyes of ecclesia as His Holiness, the successor to St Peter.

After all the righteous criticism levelled at the Roman Catholic church on its handling of sex abuse scandals, it is understandable the Pope should want to take the opportunity to set the agenda.

Thought for the Day is a religious reflection. There is an ongoing debate on whether it should be open to non-religious voices from time to time. But that is how it is for now.

It is not a political reflection. Or at least it shouldn’t be. But, by an act of omission, has the Pope unwittingly strayed into controversial political territory?

He recalls “with great fondness [his] four-day visit to the United Kingdom”. He follows this with a contemplation of the Christmas message and then a plea for us:

Dear friends from Scotland, England, Wales, and indeed every part of the English-speaking world, I want you to know that I keep all of you very much in my prayers during this Holy Season.  I pray for your families, for your children, for those who are sick, and for those who are going through any form of hardship at this time.  I pray especially for the elderly and for those who are approaching the end of their days.  I ask Christ, the light of the nations, to dispel whatever darkness there may be in your lives and to grant to every one of you the grace of a peaceful and joyful Christmas.  May God bless all of you!
Pope Benedict XVI, Thought for the Day, 24 December 2010

I note that after reflecting on his “visit to the United Kingdom” he then addresses “friends from Scotland, England, Wales, and indeed every part of the English-speaking world”. What about Northern Ireland? While it is self-evidently part of the English-speaking world, it is also one of just four UK territories. Three nations are mentioned. One is not.

Northern Ireland listeners (if, like most, they happen to own a television) are among those who pay for the BBC through their TV Licence. It is very much a part of the United Kingdom; the Republic of Ireland has made no claim on it since its ratification of the Belfast Agreement in 1998. Even Sinn Fein accepts the status quo for now, though with great reluctance.

For the Pope to have left Northern Ireland unmentioned, especially given the historic religious sensitivity, seems like a careless oversight. Perhaps so; but I would be amazed if his advisers did not think it through.

If they did, the omission of Northern Ireland was deliberate. The Pope has a right, and a duty, to be controversial. But by failing to mention Northern Ireland in his broadcast, he is in danger of offending both Catholics and Protestants, if perhaps for different reasons.

Update (28 Dec 2010): I just remembered that the British Ambassador to the Holy See is Francis Campbell (Northern Ireland born and raised). This makes the omission of Northern Ireland in the Pope’s address even more fascinating.

 

QT – Is the criticism justified?

I found Question Time fascinating on Thursday evening, but slightly dissatisfying for reasons I’m still thinking through.

I stand by my view that the BBC made the right decision to include Nick Griffin. But it’s taken a lot of criticism for the format of the show, starting with Mr Griffin himself. Read the editor’s defence here. I doubt very much that the audience was hand-picked to look a bit ‘ethnic’ or to give Griffin a hard time, but I do have some sympathy with other criticisms.

I believe the issues debated should have been wider than immigration, race and the BNP itself (+five mins on Stephen Gately). What about the postal strike? It’s a idea that’s explored further by an old friend of mine on Doobs’ Musings. Of course there are times when one issue attracts attention more than others, and QT needs to reflect that, but I don’t believe the time to do that is when one of the panellists IS the story. It had the effect of drawing the focus to him (unfairly) and denying him the opportunity to discuss anything other than media stereotypes about the BNP (also unfairly). The other panellists and the audience could easily have tied the man in knots on all sorts of issues and I’d like to have seen more of that.

I enjoyed the baying audience, and in that respect, Griffin got everything he deserved. But I believe David Dimbleby should have given the man more space to explain his points. Griffin is clearly a racist. There is enough evidence from both the distant and recent past to make that clear. But some of his points were dismissed as racist without proper exploration. That made him look bullied and it was unnecessary. The BNP’s policies are stuff and nonsense across the board: political claptrap. That’s what needs to be exposed. The racism is obvious, but the thinking it leads to is simply stupid and that’s what could have been exposed better.

What he has to say about the indigenous British population wouldn’t stand the scrutiny of a gnat. But rather than actually demonstrate that scrutiny, it was again dismissed as racist and that let the viewers down. Channel 4′s FactCheck scrutiny after the event is very worthwhile.

I barely mentioned Bonnie Greer in my earlier post. But I thought she was outstanding. Her lightness of touch cut straight through Griffin several times. He thought she was flirting with him and kept laughing inappropriately (just to show how well he gets on with a black woman?)

Jack Straw was weaker than I thought. He let himself down on the question about whether government policy had led to more BNP support. His tactic was to explain/defend the policy. Now the policy may well be defensible, but the avoidance of the question was all too obvious and frankly unnecessary. The main parties’ approach to immigration has cost them support in certain areas. And that has benefited the BNP. That may be an acceptable price to pay for the right policy or it may not be, but Mr Straw ignored that distinction to his cost.

Sam Coates of The Times ranked the key players and gave Griffin 7/10. Equal to Jack Straw and certainly more than I’d have given either of them. The BNP makes much of this on its website. I don’t agree with Mr Coates on much of what he says, but his views are interesting and certainly worth a read.

Listening to Nick Griffin is unpalatable, but he is an MEP, he is entitled to his opinions, voters are entitled to vote for him and those who didn’t are entitled to hear from him. It was right to hear from him on Question Time, but it could have been done better.

 

Talking the BNP down

Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, is among the guests on BBC Question Time on Thursday. The idea was mooted in early September, some time after they won two seats in the Euro-election. They were already represented on a number of local councils and the London Assembly.

I’m looking forward to it. The BNP deserves to be heard. More importantly, it deserves to be challenged. Around the table with him, along with David Dimbleby, will be Jack Straw, Baroness Warsi, Chris Huhne and Bonnie Greer.

Mr Straw, the Justice Secretary, has many years experience facing down the BNP in his Blackburn constituency. Baroness Warsi, a muslim, is the Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion and Social Action. She is on record as saying she understands the concerns which draw some people to the the BNP. It’s her job to answer those concerns on behalf of the Conservatives. Those concerns need to be addressed, not ignored. Who better than Mr Straw, Baroness Warsi and the great British public to take on this challenge! Here are some questions they might consider putting.

The BNP is controversial for obvious reasons. It has its supporters, but its detractors are widespread. Its constitution is overtly racist and offensively nationalistic, allowing only “indigenous Caucasian” Britons to join. In court last week, Mr Griffin has agreed to use “all reasonable endeavours” to revise this. He has no option, and it’s for that reason alone that his party will probably agree to it.

Some of the BNP’s detractors appear perpetually apoplectic. They’ll throw eggs, break car windows or urge the BBC not to broadcast their infantile views.

I disagree with this approach. Too much of what the BNP apparently stands for is revealed through the words of others. In fairness, we ought to hear from them. Not because they have something interesting to say, but because they have received significant democratic endorsement. It didn’t work when Prime Minister Thatcher tried to gag Sinn Fein. Gagging the BNP won’t work either. And throwing eggs at Nick Griffin reduces the level of discourse to somewhere far beneath student politics.

I really appreciated the recent Radio 1 Newsbeat interview with Nick Griffin. That too was controversial, but I found it enlightening. I write as a relatively politically-aware news journalist, someone who wouldn’t normally rely on Newsbeat for my political education, preferring Sunday AM, Nick Robinson’s blog or Adam Boulton for this. But Newsbeat exposed Mr Griffin and I was pleased to hear it. I have no doubt some listeners will have liked what they heard and so be it. We are all entitled to our views. But the judgements we all make ought to be well-grounded.

The BNP is not just about racism. Or immigration. Or repatriation. It is about many things. Some of what they they say has a kernal of sense. But more of what they say is nonsense. And they can be effectively argued down without going anywhere near the race issue.

It is not for mainstream politicians to collude against those whose views most of us find abhorrent. That is the job of the voters and we must be armed as effectively as possible to make the right judgement at the ballot box. Otherwise, what is democracy for?

Nick Griffin is an intelligent man. Under his leadership, his party has made leaps and bounds. But what he and his party stand for is appalling. They are fascist and extreme (though not so clearly aligned to the right as is commonly perceived). We should not use the tools of fascism to close down the debate. Let’s rise above that, listen to them and let them be damned by their own words.

 

Ryanair-bashing

I’m looking forward to this. I think Ryanair has a horrendous attitude towards its customers. There is plenty of room in the industry for new airlines but unfortunately each route would seem to have limited scope for competition.

It doesn’t seem reasonable to me that normal costs necessitated (for the vast majority of people) with flying are netted away from the actual price of the flight. The flight ‘prices’ are only so low because they don’t reflect the cost of the flight but depend on super-profit being generated by the fees on paying with a typical debit card or actually getting on the aircraft.

I wonder if the Competition Commission should consider imposing a rule that prices should as a minimum cover the cost of the product/service. It would have the effect of increasing Ryanair’s flight prices, but would also force their hand on other ridiculous costs.

There are certain costs which are basically part-and-parcel of providing flights to customers. Taxes and airport fees are among them. The fees due as a result of normal payment methods are also among them. They should be reflected in the cost of the flights. Even if they’re not reflected, it’s pretty clear that taking 120 people from London to Turin evidently can’t be done for £1.99 each. That ludicrous pricing policy needs to be changed.

When I buy a pint, the pub does not separately charge me for the glass to hold it in, the duty paid, the marketing costs of selling it and then a credit card fee. They may impose a minimum payment of £10, but implicit in that minimum is an acceptance that it is the pub and not the customer who will pay the fees.

I interviewed O’Leary once and asked him about customer satisfaction issues. He said Ryanair had the the lowest customer complaints of any major airline. What nonsense, surely? I expect most customers would not know how to complain such are the administrative barriers to doing so. I suspect the only way of doing so is via a premium rate phone line. Ryanair has no interest in customer satisfaction beyond the immediate impact on their turnover.

So I’m looking forward to watching Panorama on 12th October.