Media Double Standards Continue

In Sunday's Mirror, Mark Austin's column had some information about BNP leader Nick Griffin which was truly 'extraordinary'.

As some will be aware, a row has been raging for a few days because BNP GLA member Richard Barnbrooke wishes to take Griffin as his guest to a garden party hosted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Here's what Griffin allegedly said when asked about the invitation:

"Nelson Mandela was a terrorist but it didn't stop him meeting the Queen."

I say Nick has a point there, to be honest.

Austin fumes:

There is a difference. Mandela committed his life to ending the evil of apartheid, Griffin is committing his to effectively recreating it here. The comparison is odious.

The difference to me appears to be that Mandela was on the right side. He is a hero of the international Left, so any crimes or indiscretions he was responsible for must simply be airbrushed out of history.

Anyone who disagrees that Mandela was a saint must be a racist, after all.

Criticising Mandela does not amount to a defence of apartheid. It is simply pointing out that many such struggles, like life, are morally ambiguous, and it is ridiculous to claim one side alone has or had absolute moral authority based on one's own preferences.

I have absolutely no idea what Griffin's opinions on apartheid are - nor do I much care.

However, in August last year professional race-baiter Lee Jasper called for something which remarkably resembled apartheid - and the word would certainly have been used if Griffin had uttered similar sentiments:

Now Mr Jasper has advocated racebased schooling to tackle gang violence and raise education standards for black Caribbean students.

He said: "The fact is, it's time the black community ran its own schools, devised a curriculum that suited the needs of our children, employed teachers that look like the young people they are teaching.

"Some of the greatest black leaders in the world - Dr Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, to name just two - attended all-black schools and universities."

The ex-City Hall deputy claimed the schools would be a "beacon of excellence" for the black community and accused "liberals" of dismissing the idea while accepting faith-based education for Jewish, Muslim and Hindu children.

Mr Jasper said the schools would be open to all races but would be "focused in terms of their ethos, ethics and curriculum to the needs of our children". He added: "I'm not arguing here for a BNP-style 'apartheid education system'. I'm talking about the vision of establishing inclusive beacons of black academic excellence."

He's not arguing for BNP-style racism, you understand - simply that black children be put in certain schools simply by virtue of their colour or race.

It occurs to me that he actually is arguing for similar preferences for black people which the BNP say they wish to give to white Britons. The only difference is, in the eyes of the media and polite society - one is acceptable and one is not, for no other reason than the colour of the speaker.

For a white politician or public figure, using a term such as 'our children', which might imply that there is trouble in Happy-Rainbow-Family-Ville, would simply be career suicide. Implying that children can only be taught well by those who 'look like them' might well incur a prison term.

I don't remember Mark Austin or the Mirror having much to say about Jasper's comments, though. But still, each day it continues - the media pretends to inform us and we pretend to be informed.

They should be careful, though - if they keep the lies and distortions as blatant and one-sided as this, they may cause that which they fear most.