Charisma my arse

Nick "I'm not a racist" Griffin

Tonight's Question Time wasn't perfect, and not just because it featured Nick Griffin, as part of his campaign to be seen as "the acceptable face of the BNP" (according to a BBC report). Seriously, if that's an acceptable face then I'm Martin Luther King.

It would have been nice if Jack Straw had given a straight answer to the reasonable question of why people aren't turning out to vote, if only to demonstrate how far removed Labour is from the duplicitous, slippery BNP. Whatever you think of the mainstream parties, it MUST be emphasised that the BNP is a whole different animal, otherwise we're doomed - Straw certainly didn't help to erase the view that "these politicians are all the same, you can't trust any of them". In fact, when asked whether he was trustworthy, Griffin took great pleasure in making this point - if you don't trust him, that makes him just the same as the rest of them, and equally worth voting for.

And it was unfortunate that the only Labour MP who agreed to share a stage with Griffin was Jack Straw, giving Fat Hitler a cheap shot at the invasion of Iraq - it might be old news now, and Griffin was clutching at straws, but it still had an impact.

Generally though, I thought Griffin was asked all the right questions by an articulate and passionate audience, and was handed his own arse on a plate. He came across as ill-informed, out of his depth and desperate. And there were at least two occasions when he made an ultra-despicable statement and David Dimbleby actually did a double-take and made him repeat himself.

He must have broken a record for the number of times one person has ever claimed to have been misquoted. And, when Dimbleby challenged him with "actually you haven't been misquoted - we've seen footage of you saying these things", he left Griffin looking baffled. One thing he didn't deny, though, was that he was a holocaust denier. I hope the people who voted for this man in the European elections listened very carefully to that bit.

His attempts to act the jolly non-racist and nervously laugh along with Bonnie Greer were pitiful and more cringeworthy than an episode of The Office. And, speaking of Greer, I thought she was the star of the show - dignified, well-informed, sharp and unflappable. I loved her remark about the British public having too much common sense to vote for these bastards.

When, five minutes before the end, Dimbleby said he wanted to steer away from talking about the BNP and broached the subject of Jan Moir's Daily Mail article, I was disappointed - I felt that Griffin hadn't been given quite enough rope to hang himself with yet, and it was a shame it all had to end. But then, what's this I hear? "The sight of two men kissing is revolting"; "what they do behind closed doors, blah blah blah"... brilliant, Nick. I imagine a lot of BNP supporters are just in it for the racism - I'm glad you reminded them that you're a homophobic party too. Perhaps next time you can go for the misogynist angle as well. Amazing.

As a final insult, Griffin praised the democratic system that allowed him to share his views on a mainstream BBC programme, as if he wouldn't tear down that very same democracy if he ever got into power himself.

I enjoyed watching Griffin sweat it out over an hour of perfectly justifiable torture. But I have no idea how I'd have viewed that hour if I was a BNP supporter, or a potential one. Would his sweaty, shaky-handed, shifty delivery have convinced me of anything? Would I have been applauding his comments about immigration? I really don't know, but if he was the charismatic leader I was worried he might be, things would have been a lot worse.