Thousands of people turned up at the BBC recording studios in London to protest against the appearance of British National Party leader Nick Griffin on the popular show Question Time.

The BNP has gained in popularity over the past couple of years, even managing to secure two European Parliament seats. The main reason, of course, is immigration and Islamophobia along with a good dose of national disgruntlement due to the deepest and darkest recession that the UK has ever seen.

This was Griffin’s first taste of national exposure and the general consensus seems to be that he managed to expose himself as the leader of a party with nothing aside from ‘hatred of specific sections of people’ to put on its resume.

Griffin, trying to paint himself as some sort of modern day Winston Churchill in swathing himself in Union Jacks, Battle of Britain images, has gone on the record saying that “Adolf went a bit too far”. He has also shared a podium with the leader of the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, on Thursday night, he said that the Klan were not a violent organisation. The poor fool chose poor words as the racist group countered by yesterday saying: “We would like to take this opportunity to distance ourselves from Mr Griffin – who is clearly a lunatic, we are an entirely racist and violent organisation, and he does not speak for us.” Lunatic is probably the best word for Griffin.

Let us make it clear, this editorial is not addressing the issue of immigration to Malta, we have written time and time again on the subject and will, no doubt, continue to do so. The purpose of this editorial is, however, to bring to light the fact that pure hate does no good to anyone. We are writing about people hiding under the banner of national interest simply to further their racist and xenophobic views.

Yet, watching his dismal performance, one could draw parallels to the leaders of racist groups in Malta. Much like Griffin, many a young disillusioned lad has fallen foul to the hate preachers and has actually gone live on television to try and spew their vitriol on the airwaves.

Sadly for them, they became the objects of ridicule and some were even ostracised by their friends, families and even their fellow students at university.

Such perverse views, put on the airwaves, do nothing but stir up disdain, disgust and sheer disbelief from viewers. One only has to look at the fallout which Griffin is having to deal with.

It seems that this summer’s fall in the amount of immigrants coming to Malta, coupled with some resettlement programmes, has dampened the racist movement. Make no mistake, a couple of years back, we had full-on racist xenophobia on this island and before anyone challenges it, let us just recall the issue of black people (tourists) not being allowed on a bus, people being beaten up in Paceville, hate sermons being delivered and the very fabric of our society was starting to unravel.

Yes, just like the venom spreaders here in Malta, Griffin single handedly managed to show a nation, and the world, that fundamentalism – in whatever form it manifests itself in – results in a lack of credibility, a general public dislike of the person (or party) and perhaps most importantly, ridicule. Nice one Griffin.