The BNP and the Question Time debate

I'll certainly be watching Nick Griffin's debut appearance on Question Time with interest this week.

Many of us as political journalists have wrestled with the issue of covering the BNP.

From the BBC's point of view, it's straightforward.

As the Corporation's chief political adviser Ric Bailey makes clear, we are impartial.

The BNP is a legal political party that has achieved some degree of electoral success, and should get airtime.

We considered this issue closely a few months ago too, and also chose in the end to interview someone from the BNP, rather than ignore them.

Ironically, it was the local Labour party's attitude that first drew us towards an interview.

They were looking to change tactics from ignoring the BNP to taking them on head-on in places like County Durham where they had growing support.

In addition, the BNP had come close to winning a Labour seat in Whitehaven in a county council by-election after the party had failed to anticipate a strong challenge.

We also felt that while every other party was regularly held to account on the Politics Show, the BNP would only appear in isolated clips, with their views largely unchallenged.

So as well as looking at the rise of the BNP, we also interviewed one of their activists in the studio

It was a challenging interview, and one where I knew I had to be robust and ask some tough questions - particularly as the Labour MP Phil Wilson had decided he wouldn't be interviewed simultaneously.

I still think we made the right decision, both on grounds of impartiality, but also in putting the views and tactics of the BNP under the kind of scrutiny they hadn't had in our programme in the past.

I know some will draw a distinction between an interview and an appearance on Question Time, but it's still a chance for the public to make their own mind up about what they make of the BNP's leader and his party's views.

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