Question: Why has Nick Griffin been all over our screens for the past few days, and why is he tonight appearing on Question Time, when earlier incarnations if the BNP's mix of nationalism, socialism, and racism did not receive anything like the same publicity?
Answer: Proportional representation.
Both predictable and predicted.
UPDATE: To quote the BBC itself: "It is a straightforward matter of fact that, with some 6% of the vote and the election of two MEPs in this spring's European elections – and with some success in local elections as well – the BNP has demonstrated a level of support that would normally lead to an occasional invitation to join the panel on Question Time. It is for that reason – not for some misguided desire to be controversial, but for that reason alone – that the invitation has been extended." (Mark Thompson)
That the BNP's key demonstration of its support occurred during a PR election is a simple matter of fact. That it only achieved the demonstration that it did - that it actually won seats, and that it secured 6% of the vote - because the election was a PR election seems to me to be so obvious that denying it is plain silly.
The BNP was on Question Time because of PR. That is as close to a fact beyond dispute as anything can be in politics.
