vaeviso:
The BBC made a big mistake here - not by letting Nick Griffin appear, but in its ham-fisted attempt at ambushing him. It really would have been much better if they had kept to the usual QT format and debated the issues of the day. Nothing exposes a single issue party - extremist or not - quicker and more effectively than engaging them in debate on the full range of issues. It's why the BNP, the Greens and all the fringe parties will never govern; they can only see things through the prism of their particular conceit and they appear trivial and silly. By planting a load of questions about race and immigration and so on, the BBC have not only allowed the BNP to cry "foul", but they also allowed Griffin to play to his strengths (such as they are). The BBC should also have got someone more effective than Jack Straw on - he really was hysterical and useless. He was a left-wing extremist when he was an undergraduate at Leeds University, so it's all a bit hypocritical really.
The more the mainstream political parties and media vilify Griffin and the BNP, the more he is lionised in the eyes of the BNP electorate (and there most definitely is one). The government would do better to identify the issues that are making BNP supporters feel marginalised and address them properly rather than high-handedly refusing to engage the BNP in debate. The media should also drop all this ad hominem stuff about Griffin. His views are eminently "targetable"; there really is no need to attack him personally. It undermines the argument.
Incidentally, I thought only Bonnie Greer and David Dimbleby acquitted themselves at all well. The others need to look up "debate" in a dictionary.
You lay all the blame at the feet of the BBC, in my view unfairly. The QT format has always been the same: The audience submit the questions not the BBC. Yes the BBC choose who will ask their question but if there are a hundred questions and 75 of them ask the same question, albeit in different ways, then they have no option other than to go with that question. The audience apply to be the audience, they do not have to state their demographics or their political views although obviously, the style of their question can give a clue (they submit their question with their application).
Similarly the Beeb don't choose who the panel will be, they invite the three main parties to submit their choice and choose three panellists to try to create a balance of views. Labour put forward Straw who does come with quite a formidable reputation (probably slightly tarnished after last night's debacle).
Given the BBC had invited Griffin (quite rightly too) it was probably inevitable that there wouldn't be a balance of panellists and the BNP obviously didn't decide to flood the BBC with applications or couldn't muster the support, either way the vocal few stole the day. The BBC merely recorded the battle.