Who would have believed it? All the hullabaloo about the BNP being allowed on BBC’s Question Time – the villain of the piece vilified by everyone, escorted to the venue by minders – and we all waited with baited breath!

Nick Griffin had a ball. A pleasant smiley amiable character if ever there was one. He laughed, took no offence, indeed everything was just ‘tickety boo’, chortling was what he did best, it seemed. Even the question master queried why he was laughing, when a serious subject such as the Holocaust was being discussed.

Sanity

“Is he all there?” would not have been an unusual question as his performance in the circumstances could make one suspect his sanity.

Personality

His personality enables him to straddle the divide between Thinking and Feeling in Jung’s bi-polar scale. In this situation Griffin craftily used his Feeling preference which produces his ‘Mr Reasonable Persona.’

In terms of his personality, what he was actually doing was working through others – which is what he does best. To do this well, he instinctively knows that he has to appear amiable and reasonable if he’s to have any chance of getting people behind him. This is the value that he personally brings to the BNP.

“How could anyone believe that I was the nasty person they talk about in the media?” It was believable, and those people who feel that he has some right on his side, even though they may not be racist, could be persuaded by his demeanour, and this is what he counts upon and why he is so dangerous!

This was also possibly correct in terms of his personality, because he doesn’t do nasty. His gift is to get results through others – he is a natural motivator. His style is to capitalise on being outgoing, cheery, everyone’s best friend and he has the ‘gift of the gab.’ His friendliness masks a real desire for results. Even when he disagrees his personality style enables him to still remain pleasant. There were a great many examples of this on the programme.

His winning ways often come about because he tells people what they want to hear and he has an unerring instinct of how to utilise this gift. He has caught onto the mood of the country due to the fear and insecurities that are rife in the current financial situation. He is manipulating them, but doing it in his usual pleasant way, “I’m only the messenger.”

He is certainly not the laid back patient person he tried to portray, as he is impatient, insecure and always seeking recognition as a worthwhile person. He needs his ego to be constantly stroked.

Conclusion

Griffin starts more things than he ever finishes – staying power is definitely not one of his gifts. When he believes something he depends on his charisma and personality generally to sell the idea and this is exactly what’s happening right now. People are buying the personality and why not, as it is a very pleasant amiable one!. He shares his charisma and transfers his enthusiasm, which is exactly what a good sales man does. Many leading figures, including statesmen, and more particularly con men, share his personality type.

Truth be told, there are more people in jail with this personality type than all the other personality types put together!

Further Reading

You may also enjoy reading about how we made a Personality Test  that is easy to use.