User:A930913/Joel Weiner

Joel (Jojo) Weiner is a teenager from north London who appeared on the first leaders' election debate in the UK on 15 April 2010 and on the special edition of Question Time, which featured British National Party leader Nick Griffin.

Election Debate and Question Time
On the election debate he asked the leaders to comment on education policy. He claimed the over-testing of pupils meant a decline in the actual quality of education received. On Question Time, he challenged Nick Griffin as a holocaust denier saying, "Winston Churchill put everything on the line so that my ancestors wouldn’t get slaughtered in the concentration camps. But here sits a man who says that that’s a myth, just like the flat world was a myth. How could you say that? How could you?” Joel’s grandfather escaped from Germany to Palestine the day before war broke out but many of his family were lost. Two of his great-grandparents are believed to have been killed at Auschwitz.

Within minutes of his appearance on the Election Debate he had acquired a fan page on the social networking site Facebook, as well as numerous other fan pages. Joel himself no longer has a Facebook account, having deleted his shortly after his appearance on Question Time. However, as expected there has been at least one account created impersonating him. Joel sent his question to ITV through their website and considered himself 'very lucky' when his question was picked and he was asked to go to Manchester to ask the question at the debate.

Subsequent coverage
He received coverage in The Times, The Telegraph , Ha'aretz and numerous other newspapers and websites following his appearance on Question Time. There was a report focussed on Joel on BBC News on 16 April 2010 following his appearance on the election debate.

The Daily Telegraph quoted Joel as saying that he would not vote Labour, having grown up in "Blair's Britain". Joel will not be eligible to vote in the 2010 election, being only 17.

Personal life
Joel attends the Jews' Free School in North London and is in his final year of A levels. Joel is studying History, English and Politics, and plans to study history at university. He has stated that he does not want to be a Member of Parliament, but he may want to work in some political realm behind the scenes, possibly as a diplomat. He is the son of Masorti Rabbi Chaim Weiner, who has since 2005 been the head of the European Masorti Bet Din.