Sunday 25 October 2009

Canvassing Eastlands

Out with our survey on Saturday the main topic people wanted to talk about was Question Time on TV on Thursday. There was a degree of sympathy for the leader of the BNP who found himself under pressure from other panel members, the audience and the chairman in a programme almost entirely focussed on him and his party's followers. I felt that he had a right to be heard given the BNP success at the recent Euro elections but it was wrong for the format and questions to be devoted to one issue. It has caused people to consider the issue of immigration and community relations with a real feeling that the Govenment have failed to get a grip of this issue. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Jack Straws performance on the programme when he refused to acknowledge any responsibility for the miscalcuation of the numbers of people intending to come to the UK from the EU acession countries.