Liberal Vision

Peter Hain makes me leap to the defence of the BNP and the BBC

It takes a particularly ridiculous politician to say anything – anything at all – that is likely to make me remotely sympathetic to the plight of either the BBC or the British National Party. But Peter Hain has managed it. Idiotically, he has written to the Beeb insisting that Nick Griffin is dropped from this week’s Question Time panel. His grounds appear to be that the BNP is now outwith the law, as it has yet to comply with the recent court ruling obliging them to admit non-whites into the party (although they have said they will do so).

The ruling – brought about owing to the actions of my ex-boss John Wadham – strikes me as pretty ridiculous. But it’s certainly no grounds whatsoever for denying Griffin a seat round the table on QT.

If unambiguous compliance with every aspect of the law is a criteria for appearing on the BBC, this might disqualify a lot of mainstream politicians who face private or public prosecution for fradulent expense claims. Perhaps Hain himself should be kept off our airwaves in virtue of having been referred to the police over his dodgy campaign finances.

The truth is that Peter Hain represents that deeply unappetising left-wing trait of wanting to ban things he doesn’t like very much. I hope the BBC resist and Griffin gets a chance to make his case – and to have it properly cross-examined by Chris Huhne and others on Thursday night.