The World Famous Travelling BBC Circus (Otherwise known as Question Time)

Well, the historic edition of Question Time aired last night where, for the first time, the British National Party were allowed on to answer questions from the public. Anyone with half an ounce of intelligence could see this was not going to end well and this would be proved right when protests kicked off before the edition of the show was filmed. What followed was perhaps more shocking.

Yes, Griffin said some utterly baffling and stupid things (denying the holocaust and militant gays?) but there was an abhorrent air of hypocrisy on the show. They were more than happy to talk about freedom of speech when it came to the Jan Moir article being published in the Daily Fail but they never allowed Nick Griffin to get a word in edgeways without being jeered by members of the panel. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a supporter of the BNP and never will be - I feel it's important to highlight that I despise racism and racists - but when you invite someone onto a program and just berate them - rightly or wrongly - it's a laughable excuse of a debate. I was rather looking forward to hearing how Griffin defended the actions of the Party and its members but we never got to hear any of that as members of the audience were too busy thinking of "witty" names to shout at the head of the BNP (Dick Griffin... Really? The best you could come up with was that?).

Dimbleby never really had control throughout the show

Also, the other politicians (and Bonnie Greer - still don't know what a playwright was doing on a politics show...) were revelling in being, for once, the least hated people in the entire room, and were using it as a vehicle for berating the BNP. I wasn't after much, a sensible debate shouldn't have been much to hope for. Instead I feel let down by the circus freak show it became. Yes, the BNP's actions can be laughable at times but the fact of the matter is, whether we like it or not, the BNP is slowly becoming big bananas after their 'success' in the European Elections and we need to start taking them seriously as an extremist, but legal, party lest we end up vastly underestimating them.