Was it wise to give the BNP the "Oxygen of Publicity"?

Of course not, but it was a no-win situation for the BBC in some ways - except their ratings.

I'd never heard of the National Front (as they were once called) because they were originally banned from the British media; such a suffocation was highly successful and put them in their rightful place. In their "new" form as the British National Party, they have risen to the heights of two MEP's, which was the basis for the BBC's justification in inviting leader Nick Griffin onto tonight's Question Time; broadcast from Shepherd's Bush in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham - an "ethnic borough" composed of blacks and Indians in the words of the egregious Mr. Griffin.

Unfortunately, he has a point when he says it was something of a lynch mob, and David Dimbleby's behaviour - as the sixth panelist in effect - did not help matters, and distracted from the more important issue of immigration into this country, and what an increasing amount of xenophobia there still is around.

Such an exhibition of protest against a clearly fascist organisation on the programme was heartfelt and unanimous, but the very fact that this subject is being discussed on the airwaves and the Internet like this is helping BNP subscriptions enormously. They want Nick Griffin to be seen as a victim - but battles for democracy and truth always have always had victims of some kind. This is one victim for which there should be no pity.