I think it was a bit of a no win for the BBC - if they'd stuck rigidly to policy, they'd still have had an audience full of people who wanted to talk about the BNP's bigotry. There would have been no questions to ask the panel
It would also have allowed Griffin to rattle off his carefully prepared soundbites and left everyone complaining they didn't do a good enough job of showing him up on policy still making the same complaints. QT just doesn't go into the depth needed to discuss policy... not amongst politicians with prepared soundbites.



The first one was good - a great example of bluff calling as Griffin tried to squirm out of answering a question he clearly knew would show him up as a nasty little anti-semite. I very much disliked the second one - trying to drag other people's family into the discussion showed the complete lack of class Griffin has, he really showed what a disgusting creature he is.



I don't think anyone overly impressed me there - Straw didn't pander so much but he did try to lose his answer through sheer weight of talking so people would be to busy working out what he said to attack his answer. The Tory did a good job politically - she presented pretty much exactly the same policy on immigration as New Labour has but managed to make it sound much tougher. Politically good but clearly dishonest.
And the Lib Dem was an idiot, trying to make out they were tougher than either on immigration.