From Iain Dale, publisher of Total Politics
I regret to announce the resignation of Labour MP Denis MacShane from the Total Politics Editorial Board. Earlier today I informed the board that I would be conducting an IN CONVERSATION interview with the leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, for the next issue of the magazine. I wrote...
We have thought long and hard about the rights and wrongs of doing this interview, but feel that if we are a non partisan magazine we cannot afford to boycott the BNP, no matter how much we might like to. I’m going to approach the interview in exactly the same way as I would with any other politician. Let’s hope I produce an interview that delivers the goods and allows people to make up their own minds.
Denis sent an email to me which read as follows...
Iain,
Thanks for courtesy in letting me and other ed brd members know about Griffin TP interview . But I won't want to be linked to a journal that gives house room to an anti-semitic racist. I see close up the fear and hate BNP generates.
Shame as I think u have done a great job with TP and in all the Ashers furore I have said I have no problem with him as proprietor it is the politics of hague/cam's judgement and my own view that all outside money corrupts and corodes (Labour donors included) But I have spent my life fighting antisemitism and racism and long ago decided not to be on platforms etc with first the National front now the BNP. Won't bore you with arguments this is just a personal decision so grateful if you could take me off mast head.
He also released this statement to the press...
"Denis MacShane MP has resigned from the editorial board of "Total Politics" owned by Lord Ashcroft after its editor Iain Dale announced he would be giving space to Nick Griffin ahead of the election. Macshane said "the banalisation of the BNP's anti-semitic and racist politics is now a worrying phenomenom in current politics. Although I oppose Lord Ashcroft's occult role in Tory politics I consider Total Politics a fine and wide ranging monthly edited with the flair and energy Iain Dale brings to political publishing and writing. But Nick Griffin's record of Jew-hate, Islamaphobia and racism is clear. In a Q and A interview he will lie and swerve round hard questions and it is a major propaganda triumph for extreme right-wing racism and anti-semitism to obtain this kind of interview. So with regret I will stand down from the TP board."
I very much regret Denis's decision. He is a parliamentarian I have a lot of respect for and I know he feels strongly on these issues. I can't deny I am disappointed he reacted so quickly, without even seeing the interview but I am grateful for the words of tribute Denis pays to the magazine. However, I and my editorial colleagues deeply reject the inference that giving an elected politician an interview amounts to any sort of propaganda triumph. Whether we like it or not, the BNP has elected councillors and MEPs and may gain more than a million votes at the next election. To 'no platform' them is to hand them a propaganda triumph. In our view, their policies deserve proper scrutiny, and that is what I hope my interview will go some way to achieving.
Could I also point out that Lord Ashcroft does not own Total Politics - he is the owner of 25% of the shares, and I own 65%. Also, I am not the editor of the magazine, I am the publisher. Ben Duckworth is the editor.
Comments
Irene / March 08 2010 4:06pm
I'm sorry Iain, but even stepping down because of Griffin? MacShane still has to drag Lord Ashcroft into it.
Albert Hall / March 08 2010 4:25pm
How does McShame square with Brown's response to Q & A interviews. He lies and swerves round hard questions doesn't he?
Bill / March 08 2010 4:55pm
MacShane harps on about "anti-semitism", but it was Labour who shamefully depicted Michael Howard as a vampire on their election posters last time round, exactly as the Nazis did in the 1930s. People in glass houses and all that.
Bardirect / March 08 2010 4:55pm
For an editorial board member such as Macshane to have made such a catalogue of errors about the ownership editing and publication of TP, generates a wider doubt about his interpretation of the realities on all the other issues about which he so vociferously pontificates.
Desperate Dan / March 08 2010 5:24pm
I never felt able to buy Total Politics while you had Denis McShane on the editorial board. You have just gained a reader.
John / March 08 2010 5:27pm
You are well rid of McShane a symbol of obfuscation and mendacity a nasty piece of work.
To censor Griffen is akin to outright negation of free speech however torrid it may be.
You bet McShane was bleating on about how awful it was to censor Adams the IRA leader back in the 80's
Thats why I cannot stand the hypocrite and it would seem many others feel the same and yet he is one of the media's darlings especially on the Daily Politics show but then that is the BBC and its infamous balance of judgement.
Glad he is gone!
james bethell / March 08 2010 5:37pm
The "no platform" / "no oxygen" policies of yester-year are out of date in a world where the BNP have 2 MEPs, the internet and a million votes.
It is our moral obligation to challenge extremism and racism. The dilemma is how do we oppose without pouring petrol on the flames.
I don't have a view on Iain's interview specifically since it's not written yet.But I would certainly support responsible challenges that hold Griffin to account for his revolting views and expose his ludicrous policies as a disaster for Britain, especially the white working class.
And this is increasingly the view of people who are serious about opposing the racism and extremism of the modern BNP.
Denis, we admire your brave stance against anti-Semitism and Islamism greatly, but you've made a wrong call on this one.
Iain, don't expect a round of applause for what you're doing but remember that the public, particularly young people, expect to see people like Griffin held to account and, our research shows, they cannot understand why mainstream politicians do not make the moral case against the BNP more clearly.
Josephine / March 08 2010 5:43pm
Macshane "doth protest to much" methinks. He says he had no problem with Lord Ashcroft when he wrote his resignation. What had that to do with his objection to your interviewing Nick G.?
The BNP is not an illegal party - they should be entitled to the same treatment as any other party. The more the BNP are villified the more attractive they will seem. Human nature being what it is will make sure of that.
Macshane is no loss, he is one of the worst europhile MP's ever....
boisgolf / March 08 2010 7:41pm
Good riddance to him. He is an old fashioned leftie who is not ashamed to fill his boots at taxpayers expense. .
He also is good at lying on tv debates ref his statements on numbers of prostitutes shipped into the uk, and is therefore no loss to public life.
Mike Law / March 08 2010 7:58pm
I'm with James Bethell on this.
John / March 08 2010 11:13pm
Good riddance to McShane. Just the sound of his nasal whining voice makes me sick, not to mention his manipulation of statistics which is up there with Gordon Brown.
He got his come-uppance on Newsnight some weeks ago when he was asked where he got his amazing facts about the level of girl trafficking from eastern Europe.
"Er, the Daily Mirror", he said.
Paxo's response was pure Lady Bracknell.
"The Daily Mirror!"
paul / March 08 2010 11:41pm
In my opinion the BNP are not racist or anti-semitic they just seem a more radical alternative to Labour.
The BNP deserve scrutiny like every other political party, i really can't understand why Mr MacShane has resigned over this.
Ted Foan / March 08 2010 11:45pm
McShane always makes me cringe. He's on a par with Mandleson when it comes to spinning and lying. Very clever (he thinks) but slippery as an eel. One of Labour's useful idiots. No loss to TP.
Nash / March 09 2010 12:03am
Even MacShane's resignation letter was inaccurate - as is everything I have ever seen from MacShane.
Cannot believe he added anything by his presence on the masthead.
J Hind / March 09 2010 7:49am
As a subscriber since TP launch loosing McShane is a Win Win situation.Hypocrite always springs to mind when I hear his name and his biggoted views.
Andrew Cole / March 09 2010 8:17am
I think that it is perfectly reasonable to interview a party leader in the run-up to a general election. Look at what denying Sinn Féin the oxygen of publicity did to them. Besides, it is typical of Labour not to want to address the issues; they much prefer to distort facts (even Mr McShane, who is always reliable as a Rent-a-Quote on TV, got some key facts wrong in his press release, no doubt unintentionally intended of course, before flouncing off in a publicity-inducing huff) and silence people who dare to disagree with them.
Perhaps there would not be any BNP MEPs if Labour had not rewritten the electoral system and done a better job of running the country, since - and this is something which Labour politician don't seem to want to face - the BNP seems to do well in Labour constituencies.
After all, Labour is the party that defined itself as the political wing of the British people, that has introduced eugenics, that has given the police more powers over us, that allows snoopers into our homes while not protecting those who need the Government's help, that has messed up our national security while at the same time passing more and more authoritarian laws, that has passed laws making us show ID cards to police officers, who can take our cameras away from us and arrest us for remembering our war dead at the Cenotaph or heckling Labour ministers, that has manipulated the electoral system to keep itself in office and that has put 1 million more people on the State payroll - and they call the BNP Fascist?
Dirty Den / March 09 2010 8:46am
u av dun a gd job, but u shd see wot the bnp r doing to educayshun standids so I am leaving u.
Chris / March 09 2010 8:49am
Taking the line to take at every opportunity trumps logic, reason and morality, as ever with NuLab. It's a comfort that they actually think Lord Aschcroft's complying with the law is a bad thing, which the country cares passionately about. It shows a retreat to the core vote and the core of envious stupidity that is socialism.
TrevorsDen / March 09 2010 9:27am
Its Labour, isn't it, who have stolen a number of BNP slogans.
'British Jobs For British Workers' and all that.
Curbishly / March 09 2010 10:28am
It's very difficult to disagree with the majority of comments above.
I never spoken to/ nor met him, but his persona comes across as a very nasty little man.
rightallalong / March 09 2010 11:23am
McShane must have lost his belief in democracy and freedom of speech during his stint as Europe minister.
Do you notice that every time a Labour person sneezes they say 'aaaa...ashcroft !'?
David Waddell / March 13 2010 11:45am
It is a shame because like it or not, Mr Griffin's views are out there. They're in the minds of him and his party colleagues and they're expressed in enough votes to deliver him to Brussels. It disappoints me, but I no longer wonder why they get votes. They are part of the scene. They are for real. Stepping off the platform denies reality.