Well it has been an interesting week in the political sphere, rarely has someone with such relatively low public support seen his face plastered over the front pages of nearly every paper, nearly every day. Nick Griffin will sure be happy with his week’s work, despite his somewhat stuttering performance on Question Time, which to be honest was a rather large anti-climax.

Having dominated the column inches, with various different newspaper commentators debating whether or not the leader had a right to be on the show, he then dominated the headlines during and after the programmes transmission. This has led, according to the BNP themselves, to  a 30% increase in interest in membership. The debate as to whether it was right to allow the MEP for the North East, is irrelevant now as it has happened, however the bottom line with regards to this is that if the BBC did not permit BNP representatives to attend such programmes, they would be in breach of their charter and could face legal action. End of story. Whether you like him or not, agree with him or not is utterly irrelevant and although of course people have the right to voice their opinions, there is no legitimate argument to prevent his appearance.

What seems far more worrying is the fact that on a day when the BBC studios faced probably their biggest ever threat from protesters, some still managed to gain access to the building and even got to the doors of where the programme would be filmed. This strikes me as very suspect and perhaps im just a cynic but i think it far more likely that the BBC was not too stringent on security, knowing that any breach would only further raise interest in the show, which saw record viewing figures.

As for the content of the programme itself, i found it largely disappointing. The media and politicians relentlessly hammer the BNP and other fringe parties for having no real policies, well where were the searching questions about the BNP’s NHS policy or GM foods? Instead of taking this chance to really scrutinise the motives and hopes of the far-right the hour was spent trying to trip him up and make him look stupid. Perhaps that worked to a certain degree, but so what, what has that actually achieved? If i was a member of Unite Against Fascism or one of the mad liberals standing outside that seem to believe that everyone should be free from oppression and have their own voice unless they are right-wing opinions, i would be very disappointed.

In the days that have followed the newspapers seem to competing to see who can say the most offensive things about Griffin and get away with it. He has become somewhat similar to Stalin and Hitler and far more hated that George Bush ever was. We will have to wait and see as to what the full fall out will be but i’m sure Griffin will not be too disappointed with his week’s work. Now perhaps we can move onto more pressing matters, like do i need to post my Christmas cards now to ensure they arrive in time.