2009 Presidential Debate, Part 1, Opening Statements
Thompson aggressively defended the BBC from allegations it was enabling Griffin
The BBC Director-General, Mark Thompson announced the BBC would invite Griffin to the debate. Thompson said "keeping Nick Griffin off air is a job for parliament, not the BBC". He said that excluding Griffin would be a form of censorship, which was a matter for the government and not the BBC. Brown’s running mate, Alistar Darling condemned the BNP’s “nasty message of hate” but confirmed Brown would join Griffin on stage, since the BNP’s ascension to the national Parliament, the major parties had reviewed their policy of not sharing a platform with the BNP, with BNP politicians appearing on shows like Question Time and Andrew Marr semi regularly. However this review was intended for local hustings with a BNP candidate, not a national platform of millions like the TV debate would provide. But the BBC had made their decision. Stockport was decided as the location for the debate and as soon as the announcement was made protests prepared to give Griffin and Farage a North-West welcome.
The controversy only caused hype in audience expectations for the debate, 11 million people tuned into watch, the BBC chose their headline act, David Dimbleby as the debate moderator. Howard was confident going in, whilst not the strongest media performer, polls looked good for the incumbent President. A YouGov poll the day before the debate had Howard on 38, Clegg on 22, Brown on 19, Farage on 12 and Griffin on 9. With Farage and Griffin on the stage, Howard looked positively moderate, and there was no love lost between Brown and Clegg, fighting bitterly for second place. Howard knew all he had to do was appear Presidential and rise above it all and he would be home dry.
The order was chosen randomly. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown was selected for the converted first place in the speaking order, his voice would be the first audiences of Britain would hear.
“This is no ordinary election, and these are no ordinary times. At home we have unemployment and poverty, abroad we have our brave soldiers fighting in the Middle East and the scourge of swine flu encroaching ever closer to the UK. We don’t need blame, we need solutions, we need experience. I have held the biggest jobs in our country for the last decade. I was Chancellor for two years, Prime Minister for nine, I have spent my life preparing for this moment. There are some on this stage who have never had to balance a budget, run a country, or look our generals in the eye. I have. There are also some on this stage who have achieved nothing in power, five years and nothing, who seek to blame others and divide the nation instead of leading it. I offer something different. Not blame, not spin, just solutions.”
Many were excited to see sparks fly between Clegg and Brown in the battle for second place
Brown had a strong opening, tackling his record as Prime Minister head on and reforming his image as the man for the hour. He successfully highlighted the inexperience of the third party candidates, especially his rival Nick Clegg, and he took Howard to task on his record, a very strong 60 seconds.
Nick Clegg was next in his opening remarks.
“Change. It’s not just a slogan, it's not just a buzzword, change is about making the lives of our people better. The two main parties on this stage told us change was impossible, that this was as good as it gets, the Liberal Democrats proved them wrong. We’ve been in power longer than the Tories, we run more cities than the Tories and more Councils than Labour. We are Britain’s true opposition. We've served loyally in the public interest under Labour and Conservative Governments, securing a reduction in your income tax, and pulling back British troops from abroad. There is an alternative. The Liberal Democrats are ready to lead, I am ready to lead.”
After Clegg’s blowout Primary Debate performance, expectations were high. Whilst not a bad opening, many voters found it confusing and convoluted, Clegg tried both to play the experienced establishment leader and the plucky outsider, neither particularly convincingly. It emphasised the bind the Liberal Democrats had found themselves in the Commonwealth years. Having served in Government they were too established to play the insurgent, compared to Farage and Griffin, but they were still a third party so he couldn’t play the stability card Brown and Howard could. Thus Clegg was stuck in the middle, in the worst of both worlds.
Farage was next up. “
Farage and Clegg aggressively went after each other during the debate. So much so that some pundits joked they had their own "Europe mini debate"
"40 years, 40 years. That’s how long it's been since we’ve talked about Europe. The BBC doesn’t want to talk about Europe, the other parties don’t want to talk about Europe, but it's vital that we do. When you were last asked, it was to stay part of a “Common Market”, it was all about trade apparently, well it wasn’t true. We are now a vassal state. Most of our laws are made somewhere else. The inconvenient truth is this; it doesn’t matter who you vote for. It doesn’t matter what the candidates on stage say because the people with the real power are nearly 500 miles away from Stockport, in the European Commission building. The candidates on stage may promise you they’ll plug the deficit, well they can’t whilst we’re sending billions of pounds to Brussels. They may promise you they’ll get a control on immigration, well they can’t when they have open borders in the EU. None of this matters, unless we get out of Europe. So vote for me and within six months I will secure a referendum on Europe and if the people vote yes, I will get us out within a year. That is the only promise I’ll make, and the only promise that matters.”
Farage stuck to script alright, he “banged on about Europe”, as a certain Oxford Mayor said to a Conservative Association meeting, but Farage was supposed to be UKIP’s great leveller, a media performer who could stop it being a single issue party and reach out to the average voter. The truth was Farage squandered his opening talking about nothing but the EU, and many voters switched off.
Howard was next to speak.
An alumni of Cambridge University, Howard often returned to his former stomping ground to hone his oratory skills
“Whoever wins this election will face an onslaught on day one, day one. The minute they walk into Buckingham Palace they will have to take calls from Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin, they will have to meet top financiers to get our economy back on track, and NHS leaders to coordinate our response to Swine Flu, all the time working with a Conservative Cabinet led by our brilliant PM, George Osborne, this is all before lunch. It’s not a game. You don’t get any second chances, if you slip it has grave consequences for this country. Mr Brown has slipped once, he slipped and gave us recession, he split and sent millions of people into unemployment. If you give him the reins he will slip again, then lord knows where we will be. Do not risk it. Vote Howard on the 4th of June.”
Howard too had a strong opening, he knew his weakness, his age and he turned it into a strength. More importantly he steered the conversation back to fertile territory, the economy and the recession Brown supposedly caused. In a nest of fools and extremists Howard was the steady hand the nation needed.
Finally, the moment the punditry had been waiting for, Griffin’s turn to speak.
“If Winston Churchill was alive today, who do you think he’d vote for? Churchill knew the dangers of uncontrolled immigration and he knew the dangers of fundamentalist islam. If Churchill were alive today the other candidates would call him Islamophobic. Churchill stood for preserving British sovereignty from a European Empire, had the other leaders been around today they would have handed Britain over to that Empire in the same way they are doing now. Tonight the other candidates will lie to you, about immigration, about Islam, about Europe and about me. Don’t stand for it. It’s time for us to get off our knees.”
Griffin’s audience was not the most receptive to his opening remarks, especially when he alluded the other candidates were Nazis, the end of speech was almost drowned out by heckling and laughter. Griffin had his big debut and it had been humiliating.
The streets of Stockport were filled with anti-racist protesters
How far do you agree with the following statement? "The BBC's decision to allow Nick Griffin into the debates helped his campaign more than it harmed it" (30 Marks) - A Level History Exam (2019)
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