It’s worth noting the unintentional hilarity of the last paragraph in the politics.co.uk article:

There are also concerns among officials that elected BNP representatives may not intend to provide services on an equal level to all constituents regardless of their race or colour.

The Newsbeat interview might be helpful as evidence that the BBC isn’t a fulminating hive of left-wingery; as evidence of the corporation’s newsgathering and reporting prowess, it’s devastating. Complain to the BBC at this link.

I don’t think anyone, besides the odd Gramsci-ite Tory, really thinks the BBC is left-wing. After that, I don’t follow. How does that interview demonstrate the BBC’s ‘newsgathering and reporting prowess’? You’ve claimed that it’s a particularly weak piece of journalism. I don’t agree, but it’s certainly not newsgathering, so I don’t see how it can demonstrate prowess of same. (I’ve just had second thoughts on that sentence; suddenly I don’t know what newsgathering is. I’ve assumed that it means getting intelligence on events, but it could extend to simple interviewing, which this is unarguably a case of.) What are you asking readers to complain about? The prowess of the BBC? That it’s not left-wing enough?

I certain buy the argument that the interview was an example of giving enough rope. The BNP are a legal party; I think they’re disingenuous about the violence of their supporters, but they are allowed to put up candidates. As such, the BBC should be obliged to interview them. All the arguments they give are risible. What’s worse, is that they’re almost certainly BNP dogma and not the struggling articulations of a couple of teenagers. They were reciting the party line just as Gordon Brown was when he claimed that the government were the insurgents now. The questions were soft, but they weren’t friendly. The BNP have no policies besides the racial segregation thing; if you believe much of the electorate will be foolish enough to vote for them, you really have to question universal suffrage, because it seems that you’re calling for a sort of state censorship. They don’t represent dangerous ungoodthink, they’re just idiots.

BTW, what would you say to Nick Griffin being mauled by Paxman – would that be OK?

I don’t like the BNP, and if it ever came to that, I’d always vote tactically against them. But some people believe in their policies. And we’re a free country and we should allow them their beliefs and expression.