Griffin performance proves huge draw

The controversial appearance of far-right British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin on the BBC's flagship Question Timeprogramme last night was watched by 7.9 million people – three times the programme's normal viewership.

It also proved to be an enormous draw on Twitter with over 1,000 messages about the BNP leader's performance being posted every minute during the hour-long programme.

According to figures released by the BBC this morning, some 75,000 tweets were posted using Question Time'sTwitter link – or hash tag – during the programme, with the vast majority being extremely critical of both Mr Griffin's comments and his demeanour. 

The programme, presented by David Dimbleby, also featured Justice Secretary Jack Straw, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, Conservative community cohesion spokeswoman Baroness Warsi and American playwright and critic Bonnie Greer.

Mr Griffin admitted he had shared a platform with the Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, a man he said was "almost totally non-violent".  He also described Islam as a "wicked and vicious faith" and claimed homosexual men were "creepy".

He said the "indigenous" people in Britain - when challenged by fellow panelists to say if he meant  white people, he insisted it had nothing to do with colour - had been subject to "genocide" in recent times at the hands of ethnic minorities. The claim was widely ridiculed by both the panel and the audience.

When he was asked to defend a quote attributed to him in which he equated the Holocaust with the flat earth theory, he claimed "European law" stopped him explaining the background to the quote or how his thinking had evolved since he said it. "I can't tell you why I used to say those things anymore than I can tell you why I have changed my mind," he said.

The BNP leader was frequently booed by the studio audience during the programme but that paled in comparison to the criticism which was levelled at him on Twitter where tens of thousand of people lined up to pour scorn on his views, his appearance on the show and the manner in which he handled the debate.  

Bonnie Greer, on the other hand, was widely praised for the way she tackled Mr Griffin and repeatedly challenged his claims while Baroness Warsi was also commended for her approach.