Giving the BNP a seat on the Question Time panel was always considered risky – even by supporters of it. We want to shine a light on the BNP and their policies, to make them unelectable. There was always a chance that Nick Griffin would perform well and the whole spectacle would have been a massive success for him.
That did not happen.
Griffin bombed. He stuttered, was incoherent, and failed to respond to the questions. He was unable to deal with the criticism of the panel and some well-made arguments from …

Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, is due to take part in Question Time on Thursday. But Peter Hain has declared that it would be illegal to have a BNP representative on the panel:

Now that the BNP have accepted they are at present an unlawful body, it would be perverse of you to maintain that they are just like any other democratically elected party. On their own admission, at present, they are not.
If you do not review the decision you may run the very serious risk of legal challenge in …

The news that Jacqui Smith will be on Question Time in two weeks time was greeted with louder boos than Nick Griffin being on next week!
It really does say something when a former Home Secretary is despised more than the leader of a racist party.

The Lib Dems are such a pointless addendum to our political system that the BBC can’t even spell the party’s name right when linking to their conference details:

Not that I suppose many people have noticed…

Although my immediate reaction to the concept of BNP leader Nick Griffin being invited on to Question Time was “WTF?!”, as soon as I got over that immediate shock, my view is simple.
Let them on.
Let the BNP come on to Question Time. Let them speak their piece. And then shoot down their absurd, racist policies and views.
The only way to defeat the BNP is to allow them to air their views and then poke holes in everything they say. If we ban them, we give them legitimacy through being seen …

It’s Thursday and Question Time is back. And, as usual, I shall be tweeting along – use the hastag #bbcqt to keep up to date!
I’m sure that, as usual, it will be well attended and very enjoyable indeed.
Be there or be square!
UPDATE: What a Question Time! Margaret Beckett got thoroughly fingered in the MP expenses and all the MPs on the show – Beckett, Ming Campbell, and Theresa May – got heckled more than I have ever seen before on QT.
There is so much anger out there that MPs just …

Question Time is back, and being discussed on Twitter. Very fun it was too, my first live tweeting.
Matt Wardman and I were playing the new “Interruptions Count” game, for which the rules are simple:

The loser of any discussion is the one who interrupts their co-interviewees the most.

The results of my viewing last night is as follows:
And the winner is: David Dimbleby! He scored 12 interruptions and 7 attempted interruptions.
He constantly interrupted the panel and got in the way of debate (or rather “debate”).
Close behind in second place: David Starkey. He …

Read the first paragraph of this story and see if anything sounds not-quite-right:

Yes, it says “as sure as… Tom follows Jerry”. This must be a brand new TV programme, as I’ve never heard of one called Jerry and Tom.

Does he mean Tom and Jerry, by any chance? I’m sure we’ve all heard of that classic cartoon.
Maybe the BBC needs to employ some better sub-editors – or reporters that pay a bit more attention to popular culture when they try to work it in to their articles.
Unless, of course, Justin Parkinson …

It certainly does appear to, considering that it has got pretty much everything they wanted has happened.
Frankly, it is disgusting the way that the BBC has caved in to the demands of the Daily Hatemail. After all, if being offensie was enough to get sacked, there would hardly be any journalists – and certainly no columnists – in the Mail.
UPDATE: There’s also this post at CentreRight, complaining about the use of the joke “I’m now so old, my pussy is haunted” in response to the challenge “What the Queen didn’t …

Why do politicians feel it necessary to spout off about things that really aren’t anything to do with them, and on which we don’t want to know – or care about – what they think.
This being a prime example.
Why does Gordon Brown need to inform us that he thinks that Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand are “inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour”.?
Or David Cameron that he thinks that “the main question is why did they allow this programme to be broadcast, given that it was pre-recorded?”
We can all make up our own …