No surprise that I was disturbed by this program. Did anyone else see it?
To sum up for those who didn’t, a reporter spent 8 months trailing Mark Collett, a British National Party (revised version of the neo-Nazi National Front) young hopeful round the country.
On camera, delivered the (almost) smooth rhetoric of the BNP, but off camera he trotted out the untruths and idiocies of the White Nationalists. So the interviewer began secretly leaving the camera on while this guy was spouting his inflammatory nonsense.
At the end of the program, the interviewer confronted him about the crap he’d been talking, then revealed that though they were “friends”, he’d “betrayed” him by secretly recording him.
The expression on this wanker’s face was priceless.
This is what Nick Griffin (head of the BNP) says about the documentary: all the Nazi symbolism, swastika tattoos and ‘88’ T-shirts are merely “rough edges”. :eek: This is what Mark Collett has to say: he’s “upset” and was made to look like “a psychotic fool”.
Did anyone else think that the interviewer could have handled the confrontation better? That by revealing that he was a Jew after revealing that he’d “betrayed” him might be seen as a self-fulfilling prophecy by the BNP?
Anyone think that this program might inadvertantly drum up support for the BNP? Or is it another nail in their coffin?
I thought he - Collett - came across as a nasty piece of work. Ignorance combined with cunning. Depressing viewing.
I agree about the interviewer - at times his smugness at the coming confrontation was almost palpable. While I’m as happy as anyone to see neo-Nazis exposed, I felt that the way it was handled did detract slightly from the seriousness.
I was rather disappointed with the denouement. I was disappointed that the interviewer really only called him on his attitude to Jews/1930’s Germany. Also the way he brought up the “I’m Jewish and white” thing at he end. We’d already been treated to Collet’s views on that (“the Jews have defined themselves as a seperate race …”), so I’d have liked him to dig deeper there, after all, he’d had plenty of time to come up with far better counter arguments.
Collet’s family were also appalling. I guessit would be hard to grow up to be reasonable with a mother who descibes the Times as a left wing newspaper, whilst remaining convinced her views are held by the majority (who are too afraid to voice them).
Yeah,
its not often you shout out loud in suprise; but when his mother claimed the Times is a left wing paper.The neighbours must have heard me half way down the street.
I was heartened to see the Anti Nazi League out (though it’s a shame they felt the need to reconvene), and how few of these people were at their ‘festival’ thing.