Question Time - what's the worst that could happen tonight?

It's no longer about whether the BNP will appear on Question Time. It's about how they will appear on Question Time. For good or for ill, Nick Griffin will be on the panel tonight, and we need to ensure that, despite his presence, the programme is a good advert for the tolerant mainstream of British politics.

Clearly, the best possible outcome is for Griffin to be demolished in debate by the other panellists. From any reasonable perspective, his views range between the deeply offensive and the deeply laughable. (See this article from today's Independent for more information.) With any luck, he'll appear unelectable, devoid of any real answers for Britain, and exposed for the ugly racist he is.

Then again, Griffin is an experienced and slick public speaker. In his job, you'd have to be. He will be used to dealing with probing questions, and you can be sure that he will have worked out his answers, long in advance, to the very predictable things that he'll be asked. So this would appear to be the worst outcome for tonight's show: Griffin deflects the criticism, and maintains a façade of reasonableness that wins over yet more disenchanted voters to the BNP.

But there's an even worse possible outcome. Groups such as Unite Against Fascism have been encouraging their supporters to request tickets to the recording, and it's a fair bet that there will be plenty of anti-fascist campaigners in the studio audience. People who have no interest in arguing against the BNP, and are angry that the BNP has been invited along at all. The atmosphere will be confrontational, and Griffin's attempts to debate will be lost under a barrage of jeers and hisses. If that happens, then he will look like a martyr. As a supporter of a tolerant society, which headline would you rather read in tomorrow's papers? "Racist exposed on TV"? Or "Griffin shouted down by protesters"?

I can think of an outcome that is worse still. Perhaps the worst of all. Because the biggest danger is that tonight's Question Time will turn into a debate with no substance. Accusations of racism met with bare denials and counter-accusations: this will do nothing to tackle the very real problems which have led to the BNP's recent and upsetting electoral success.

We benefit hugely from living in a society where we are valued equally, whatever our ethnicity; we benefit hugely from living in a Britain where we are free to choose our religion, our style of dress, our cultural identity. And we benefit hugely from properly managed, legal immigration to our country. Despite this, a large number of Britons feel worried and alienated by the way in which our society is changing. If we want those people to vote for non-racist parties, we need to take their concerns seriously, understand them, and deal with them in a rather more nuanced way than simply venting our spleen at them.

The argument for tolerance is a complicated one. It needs to be made, and made with conviction. But the other panellists, already under fire for appearing on the programme, will be keen to distance themselves from the BNP as their first priority. If they spend most of the time simply shouting "Griffin is a racist, don't listen to him," the argument for tolerance will never be made at all. And for the political mainstream, that will be the biggest own goal of the evening.

HoodieTV: Me v David Dimbleby

This week's HoodieTV comes courtesy of the BBC. If you want to watch me lock horns with David Dimbleby and the other four Schools Question Time finalists, just follow this link.

The final hurdle

I'm afraid I didn't make it onto the panel for tomorrow's Question Time. I've had a really good run, and I'm delighted to have been in the final five. The audition involved a mini-Question Time in the studio, chaired by David Dimbleby, and if nothing else, it's good to know that I can stand up to the full Dimbleby treatment without losing it too badly!

Thanks very much to everyone who supported me; I couldn't have made it this far without you.

The recording of the audition should be online shortly, and I'll post a link as soon as it goes up. I'll also post a more detailed account of today's adventure when I get back from London this weekend.

Very best of luck to the winner, Charlie Bell, who put in a great performance in today's audition, and deserves to do extremely well tomorrow night on TV.

The tale of BBC Question Time, Part 1

The past three weeks have been epic. I roadtripped across seven countries (well, five proper countries plus Monaco and Liechtenstein). Then, I moved out of my flat in Berlin. It took me a day to pack everything, and another day of playing Tetris with my bags and my car boot. By the time I'd wedged three suitcases, two violins, two guitars and two amplifiers into the back of my Mégane, there was no space left for that barrel of Duckstein or that case of Almdudler I'd hoped to bring back; oh well. It took a day, a night and a ferry crossing to get home to Altrincham, and then I went into a couple of days' hibernation.

And now I'm back to blogging.

The biggest political story at the moment, of course, is the battle to be the fifth panellist on next week's BBC Question Time. It's the annual Schools Question Time edition, where a group of sixth-formers get to produce an episode of the flagship political programme. This year, they've decided to have a young person, chosen from the general public, taking the final place on their panel.

When they advertised the competition, I decided to have a crack at it. I had to send in a one-minute video clip explaining why I thought I was right for the job. I put my camera on a table, and told it how frustrating Question Time is when the political guests are allowed to get away with question-dodging and waffle; and then I saved the rant and e-mailed it to the BBC.

A week or two later, mid-way through my roadtrip, I was walking along the seafront in Nice when the BBC rang for a phone interview - they wanted to know a bit more about my political views, and to ask me some awkward questions. The poor beach-goers were treated to 20 minutes of watching me pace up and down the promenade, delivering a heartfelt plea for votes at 16 and the eternal damnation of George Galloway.

Four days later, in the middle of a tricky parallel parking manoeuvre outside a youth hostel in Lugano, the phone rang. I stopped the engine, picked up the phone, and was thrilled to hear that I'd made it into the final ten. My video was put up on the BBC site, alongside the videos of the other nine bright-eyed hopefuls, and we were subjected to a public vote, to narrow the field down to five.

At this point, I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone who voted for me. I know that a lot of my friends from the blogosphere backed me as the final QT panellist, and I'm very appreciative of all the support, especially to Nich Starling for giving me a massive plug.

It all paid off too, because I had another call from the BBC to say that I've made the final five - so I'll be heading to London this Wednesday to try and clear the last hurdle: a mini-QT in the studio, where I'll have to try and be more telegenic than the other four. Hopefully, hopefully, I'll make it onto the show.

Whatever happens, this story will have a Part 2.

Shami Chakrabarti calls the shots on Celebrity Big Brother

The fuss turned to outrage, the outrage turned into a diplomatic incident, and now Channel 4 have announced that they intend to do the decent thing, and donate the profits of tonight's Celebrity Big Brother to charity. This is supposed to prove to the world that they're not just manipulative profit-mongers, and they don't want to make unfair gains from the Jade Goody racism row.

I don't think it proves anything of the sort. The massive amount of press coverage has driven their ratings up anyway, and that effect is going to last well beyond the eviction show. The increased revenue over the rest of the series will net them far more than they lose by making a donation. The execs seem to have picked exactly the right moment, economically speaking, to calm things down. They've chosen the equilibrium point between people switching on in curiosity, and switching off in disgust.

Timing aside, the way in which the contestants have acted seems suspicious. Shilpa Shetty, the victimised Bollywood star, said she was being racially bullied a few days ago; now she says she isn't. The contestants are supposed to have no idea how the outside world sees them, so this is far too convenient. Most suspiciously of all, Jade Goody has apologised if she "offended any Indians out there" - when Jade Goody starts thinking of people other than herself, you know something's up. To be honest, I'm impressed she's heard of India.

What's more, Channel 4's charitable gesture isn't quite as original as it sounds. The suits were obviously watching BBC Question Time last night, where panellist Shami Chakrabarti suggested donating the Big Brother profits to charity. She said that if they gave the money to anti-racism and anti-bullying campaigns, it would be a very appropriate gesture.

Of course, it also means that people can feel less guilty about watching the show, and that the "great regulator known as the off button" won't cut into Channel 4's profits. That really is appalling cynicism on my part, isn't it? Maybe I'm cut out for a career in reality TV ...