Thursday 22 October

A nice bright morning, with a lot of contrails in the sky. I'm having a job with the hurricane updates at the moment, because Hurricane Neki is headed for the Papahanaumokuakea (pronounciation) National Monument northwest of Hawaii. Will have to look it up, never heard of it before. Intriguing names like French Frigate Shoals abound there.

There is a lot of fuss over the presence of the far-right British National Party on the Question Time programme on BBC1 tonight. A bit too much fuss. The BNP advocate the involuntary removal of all aliens from Great Britain. They do have elected representatives on local councils and in the European Parliament, and are (as such) a legal political party. The BBC is legally speaking correct in its stance to give the BNP a place on the debating programme, even though few people subscribe to its policies. They err very closely on the side of legality, shown by the fact that they were forced to accept non-British-born membership applications.

Parties like the BNP thrive in a climate where government policy is seen to be failing, and particularly at times of economic hardship, like at present. The fact that the BNP has elected representatives should be a wake-up call for the Westminster administration to look at race relations within the UK. They have improved, but not enough. Failure to act, or even take cognisance of the reasons for the popularity of the BNP, can (in extreme circumstances) lead to a danger to life. By giving this party a chance to air their views on national TV, those of us with a properly working brain can see what they stand for. And decide not to support them.

No, I'm not watching Question Time. I never do.