Question Time and Nick Griffin: They should have trusted us more

I did not watch much of Question Time, but then I rarely do. These days, if I am up late on Thursday evening, it is just a way of filling that annoying gap between Newsnight and This Week.

From what I saw Nick Griffin came over badly -and his "non-violent Klu Klux Klan" was priceless. But the usual format of the programme was changed because he was there.

Yes, many in the audience will have wanted to quiz him on his views. Yes, the other panelists were right to challenge him. His presence even seems to have woken David Dimbleby up.

But I am not sure we needed the ritual denunciations, such as the one from Jack Straw that opened the programme. There seemed an unwillingness to trust the audience in the hall or at home to draw their own conclusions. The result was that Griffin was made to appear a victim of the establishment, which is just the picture he tries to present.

It was notable that in answering the one normal Question Time question - on Stephen Gately and the Daily Mail - Griffin made a fool of himself. They should have given him more rope: he would have obligingly hanged himself.

As I said before Griffin appeared:

Left-wing intellectuals tend to distrust the working class, believing they are quite racist as enough as it is and fearing that they will be attracted to the BNP if they are allowed to hear from them.