Speakers at the rally will include Ken Livingstone and Peter Hain. Mr Livingstone is to be applauded for employing his stentorian voice to rouse the 1,000 protestors expected. The UAF website interview with Mr Livingstone contained this nugget from Ken:

The BBC should withdraw its invitation to Nick Griffin to appear on Question Time. A court ruled this week that the fascist BNP’s membership rules illegally discriminate on grounds of race. This is only part of the picture. When the BNP is given a major media platform for its message of bigotry, race and religious hatred, hate attacks by thugs on the streets increase.

The public do not pay license fees to have them abused by the BBC to help people spread hatred and intolerance. If the BBC continues with this policy it will share responsibility for the crimes against minorities which will follow.

Griffin: Signs of "bigotry, race and religious hatred"

The correctness of Ken’s sentiments in refusing to give platform to the BNP is laudable. In fact, very few have Livingstone’s public credentials in the fight against neo-Nazi politics in Britain in the late 20th Century. But the same cannot he said of his sincerity in opposing “bigotry, race and religious hatred” of any political group of any stripe.

Last month Livingstone had no qualms with providing platform to Khaled Meshaal, whom he interviewed for another media platform, this time the New Statesman. Meshaal is the leader of Hamas, an organisation which is classed by the European Organisation as a terrorist group (pdf). It seems Livinstone has no qualms with Hamas’ message of “bigotry, race and religious hatred”.

Meshaal and friend: No signs of "bigotry, race and religious hatred"

How do the New Statesman and Mr Livingstone get away with indulging the leader of a terrorist entity? The answer, by using the pretext that Hamas are a democratically elected party with mandate to operate in Gaza. It is a get-out clause that is often used by Hamas apologists who are comfortable with Meshaal’s “bigotry, race and religious hatred”, or are at least ready to ignore it.

It must be wonderful to live like Ken Livinstone. You can be a moralising, sanctimonious demagogue who badmouths and censures the BBC for defending its policy to allow the BNP on prime-time TV, in spite of the BBC’s function as a national media outlet which serves us, the British public, by giving access to elected members of political parties to present their case on a public access programme, such as Question Time. But you are free to break your own moral code for political expediency whenever you like.

You will have the privelege to forget to ask Khaled Meshaal any uncomfortable questions about the Hamas, that would not sit right in a fawning puff-piece published in a “well-respected” journal like the New Statesman. But no such privilege can be granted to any of Nick Griffin’s co-panelists on the BBC should they fail to give him a hard time on Question Time tonight. As Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens notes:

On Question Time [tonight], Griffin, like Meshaal before him, will try to present a moderate and sensible side of the BNP. It is the responsibility of his co-panelists to prevent him from doing so and therefore succeed in exposing his fascist ideology. Were he not an apologist for Islamic fascism, Ken would have done the same with Meshaal. Rather than accusing the BBC of “sharing the responsibility” for the crimes that will follow what he sees as an endorsement of the BNP, he should look at the role he has played in helping Hamas deceive the west while they impose strict religious codes on their citizens, kill political opponents and murder Israeli civilians.

Many people have the right to criticise the BBC’s decision to allow Nick Griffin on Question Time tonight, but not everyone. The question you must ask yourself is:
“Would I protest the BBC’s decision were it to have Khaled Meshaal on the panel of Question Time?”

If you answer “no” to the question, then you forego that right, as I suspect Ken Livingstone and his band of pro-Hamas hacks at the New Statesman would.