I had intended to post some thoughts on the BNP/Question Time issue earlier today but time is pressing on and I still haven’t done so.

However it is worth visiting Comment is Free and having a read of Ken Livingstone’s article there, which was published a short while ago.

Ken writes:

Nick Griffin’s performance on Question Time was appallingly bad, but that is beside the point. The BBC has been shamed by this circus. Worse, the corporation has now established the principle that Griffin and his party are legitimate participants in the corporation’s flagship political debate programme and in politics. They have given him a mainstream platform to promote his openly Islamophobic views that will encourage racism towards British Muslim Asians and give succour to violent thugs. It is a further opening of the door to the legitimisation of the BNP.

Ken’s point is not confined to the BBC:

Defeating the far right requires the basic principle that every single concession given to them does not deter them or reduce their base; it gives them greater confidence to come back for more. This applies to the mainstream political parties as much as to the media. Politicians must also stop giving ground on race and immigration, or winding up such stories as those concerning the Muslim veil that encourage Islamophobia, or denigrating multicultural life.

Read the whole thing and take part in the discussion here.