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There has been one beneficiary of the heated and protracted debate about the appearance of the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, on BBC Question Time tonight: ratings for the programme are likely to soar.
But it is worth bearing in mind that, even with an inflated audience, Question Time does not have the power to dominate political debate, to confer respectability on a despised party or to change the hearts and minds of the kind of people likely to vote for the BNP or subscribe to its obnoxious views.
The outrage about Mr Griffin's appearance, however well-intentioned, has been disproportionate to the importance of the event.
What will, however, do a great deal to give succour to the BNP and foment antagonism between ethnic communities is unchecked immigration.
The news yesterday that the population of Britain is predicted to rise to 70 million in 20 years, chiefly because of the number of first and second-generation immigrants, suggests that the Government's claims to have controlled immigration are unfounded.
Two-thirds of newcomers settle in London and the South-East; the strain on public services and community cohesiveness is greatest here. This generates racial tension. The BNP profits from it.
Of course, we are all beneficiaries of immigration, too. London's hospitals, for instance, are staffed by nurses and doctors from all over the world.
Some of the influx is a consequence of the expansion of the European Union and therefore outside our control; in any event, it is hard to imagine how the service industries and construction could function without Poles and other East Europeans.
The problem is in scale. Three million people were granted citizenship during the Blair years. That does not include those under the radar. The Tories abolished border controls and Labour did not restore them.
So, of the 18 million visas issued by the government how many recipients returned? Where a backlog in asylum claims becomes too great, applicants are given leave to remain.
Yet still the Government favours Turkey's entry to the EU, potentially giving 72 million people rights to live here.
This is not the way a responsible government should have behaved. Indeed, mass migration - without public debate - may be the lasting legacy of the Blair years.
It is a little late for the Government to claim that its points-based system will remedy matters. But if the BNP reaps the benefit, the big political parties must share the blame.
A suicidal strike
The postal strike starts today for mail processing workers; tomorrow delivery and collection staff.
It is a self-defeating action on the part of the Communication Workers Union, however much they have been tried by the controversial management style of Adam Crozier, the Post Office boss.
Already, people are using email to circumvent the non-delivery of letters; we are being advised to use electronic payment for bills. Once the strike is over, many will not revert to using post.
Postal deliveries have already been disrupted in London as a result of previous strike action; it is anyone's guess how long it will take for services to return to normal after this week's action.
People value the postal service but our goodwill is sorely tried by this suicidal industrial action.
The Dome's triumph
Those who jeered at the Millennium Dome as a white elephant with no real function must now eat their words.
The O2 arena is now the most popular venue in the world. It's a lesson to cynics and naysayers everywhere.
Reader views (5)
The only reason mass immigration has been allowed was to force down labour costs. The immigrants who now work here have found the wages are low and the streets are not paved with gold as promised for the poor working class
- Geoffrey Bishop, southport england
Al long last it is being recognized that uncontrolled immigration and a UK population of more than seventy million is not a "good thing"!
Logically this means that immigration must be stopped and then reversed.
This is the only course of action possible if the Office of National Statistics (ONS) projections are not to become a reality and Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, leaders of the Cross Party Board on Immigration, have now openly stated this.
Banning the BNP will do nothing to address the economic reality of the ONS analysis. Time to stop scoring petty political points and for MPs to start governing the country!
- Manny Goldstein, London, England
The Millennium Dome WAS a white elephant because the dead hand of government was controlling it. O2 is privately operated. A lesson here, maybe?
- Ken, Bexleyheath
".. we are all beneficiaries of immigration .."
Big business may benefit from immigration, it is a bit much to suggest we all benefit. However, the bonus of Eastern European immigration is a similar Christian culture. Division and social ruptures are far more prominent where, how shall I put it, non-Christian cultures invade.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
How long before Boris claims the O2 Arena as his brain child?
- Barry, Welwyn England
