How do you solve a problem like the BNP?

Jack Straw's decision to attend Question Time along side the BNP leader Nick Griffin has been met with a certain amount of shock and appal.

The BNP are undoubtedly abhorrent. Their website includes 'articles' such as one on how 3rd generation Muslim immigrants to Europe will be 'forever aliens' and claiming they are pouring out of countries like Germany to go to Al Qaeda training camps in the Middle East. This is clearly mainly exaggerated scare mongering; the piece itself admits that when this revelation from the German foreign ministry was reported in the mainstream press only one white German was actually listed as going to one of these camps. Why they admitted this I don't know. They seem to think it shows that they have managed to do some incredible undercover reporting, rather than just showing them to be lying. The Telegraph did cover this 'phenomenon', but from their article it does not seem that there is a mass exodus, rather an extremely small and isolated community. And by my count there are a whole two people named.

The comments following this article are even worse including:
"We desperately need a British National Party Government in Britain, at least we can get organised to protect ourselves from the inevitable muzzie rioting!"

This made me feel faintly sick on an empty stomach very early in the morning.

This certainly needs to be stopped, but ignoring the BNP and pretending it isn't happening is clearly doing nothing to stop their growing popularity and their apparent ability to stir up support by using paranoia and racist fears. In the European elections they gained seats, and they may not be credible, but they are unfortunately now unavoidable. They are an official political party, and they haven't done anything that has been confirmed as illegal, yet, and so we undermine our democracy if we just ignore them. People voted for them, enough people for them to actually get seats, and as such they have the right to a say. Also anything which is suppressed often ends up being more popular than it would have been if it was openly allowed. In a comparatively petty example, fox hunting was a dying activity until the government placed restrictions on it. If the BNP are offered the chance to debate with MPs from the other political parties it will simply show how ridiculous and un-supportable their views are, and show them to be as frankly laughable as they are - its not the people who want this Question Time to be boycotted who need persuading, and if people are drawn to watch because they support the BNP or because its controversial it will not give the BNP a platform, but rather some medieval stocks in which to hang their heads whilst rotting fruit is thrown at them.

And if people don't believe that this will happen, don't think that the MPs from the 3 main parties are capable of that, if they think that the BNP might come out looking good or winning the arguments, then Britain, our political state and parties, are in a much worse state that I believe us to be, and simply preventing the BNP from taking part in Question Time would not even come close to sorting us out.

This edition of Question Time will take place in London on October 22nd. There is also a protest against the debate planned outside the BBC centre in Newcastle next week.