BNP Question Time Appearance Row

On Thursday night, BNP leader Nick Griffin will appear on the BBC's current affairs programme “Question Time” after the BBC ignored calls to ban him. The corporation's governing body had met in emergency session to consider the issue of the BNP appearance.

Anti-fascist protesters rallied outside the BBC's west London studios on Thursday ahead of a white-supremacist party leader's appearance.

The BNP is now saying that its “security team” will be with Griffin inside the BBC studio.

BBC WALES will not be inviting BNP representatives on to political panel programmes because it judges that the far-right party has insufficient support.

I can understand the disgust that millions of BBC TV viewers will feel at the inclusion of the British National Party leader but millions of Britons will nevettheless watch tonight as the nation's public broadcaster gives Griffen his first full TV airing.

Ben Bradshaw, the Culture Secretary, says he does not believe that Nick Griffin should appear on Question Time tonight but Gordon Brown said tonight's appearance by Nick Griffin would be a good opportunity to expose what the BNP are really like and expose his "unacceptable" views.

One overlooked aspect of the emergence of the BNP is the influence of Jean-Marie Le Pen. BNP publications praise his Front National's (FN) transformation. Jean-Marie Le Pen called his spot on L'Heure de Vérité 'the hour that changed everything'.