Bigots don’t belong on national broadcaster

OVER the years, with the gift of 32 appearances on Question Time, the BBC helped create the monster that is Nigel Farage. A bigoted blow hard, he was a ratings winner, even if we just tuned in for the catharsis of screaming at the TV. As it turned out, any publicity for Farage was hellish for the rest of us. Nicola Sturgeon has rightly refused to take part in a BBC-hosted event after learning former White House strategist and fascist Steve Bannon was set to speak at the conference.

The BBC are promoting a man who says racism should be worn as a “badge of honour”.

The corporation compounded the error by describing Bannon, left, to Sturgeon as a “powerful and influential figure ... promoting an anti-elite movement.”

Bannon has been touring Europe, praising the resurgence of fascism, in countries like Italy.

He has used it to hail, or should that be heil, Italy as “redefining politics in the 21st century” – by which he means reviving the fascism of the 20th century. Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, has suggested making the country’s “ethnic” shops close at 9pm, an echo of the Hitler’s curfews and boycotts of Jewish businesses.

Bannon shouldn’t be banned but he also shouldn’t be booked.

As Italy shows, words can all too soon turn to action, with one man’s freedom of speech becoming another man’s terror.