VoF spin cannot hide leadership disarray

On page five of Voice of Freedom, #117, in an article entitled "A tale of two MEPs: one went to the Palace...the other went on television", the fiasco of Mr Griffin's barring from the queen's garden party is presented as a public relations coup for the British National Party.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact it was more like a comedy of errors.

Error number one: Mr Griffin should not have attempted to make political capital out of his invitation to what is generally regarded as a non-political event. More particularly, he should not have asked, on the BNP web site, for suggestions as to what he ought to say to the queen should he meet her. This was naturally regarded as provocation by the Palace authorities, and as an attempt by a politician to embroil the queen in party politics - a constitutional faux pas, if not a case of lese-majesty.

Mr Griffin's defence: that nowhere in "...the book of rules..." does it state that a guest should not give media interviews about their invitation is either disingenuous or crass. The "book of rules" cannot possibly cover every eventuality, and some things are so obvious that it is assumed that anyone with a modicum of common sense would be aware of them.

Mr Griffin should have known that attempting to upstage the queen by turning her garden party into a political circus, with himself hogging the limelight, would be viewed with displeasure by the Palace authorities.

Their subsequent barring of him should then have come as no great surprise to him.

Error number two: Mr Griffin clearly believes, contrary to all the evidence, that the British public cannot get enough of him. His tour of the TV studios, following his barring from the garden party, did not help the party's image. This was demonstrated by a local election result on the same day, in Basildon, in which, whereas in the past the BNP's share of the vote had been approximately 15%, this time it was less than 4%.

This was another Pyrrhic victory of the BBC Question Time variety.

Error number three: Andrew Brons MEP should not have attended the garden party after Mr Griffin had been turned away from it. Despite the fact that Mr Griffin had courted his own humiliation, indeed had brought it upon himself, through his poor judgement and lack of common sense, and that Andrew Brons had not made the same mistake, Andrew should have shown greater solidarity with the party leader, and not attended the garden party.

Both MEPs should then have held a joint press confrence, in which they issued a joint statement, in which the tardiness of the withdrawal of Mr Griffin's invitation, and the Palace's failure to communicate with Tina Wingfield, as promised, could rightly have been censured.

The point should also have been made that it is infra dig for any elected representative of the BNP to treat what is essentially only a social event as being of greater importance than it actually is. Which is, frankly, not much.