Those who have lambasted the BBC for allowing the ridiculous Griffin to spout off like a pompous little bragger in the school playground might consider what happened on a previous attempt by government to gag.
   In the 1980s Mrs Thatcher legislated that the voices of IRA terrorists should not be aired on the BBC. To get round this, the Men from Auntie employed actors with a good grasp of that tricky (and somewhat unlovely) accent of the Six Counties to speak the Terrorist’s words for them, which they did fluently, with gusto and to good effect, undoubtedly with a greater clarity than the boyos could have mustered themselves. It was also an unexpected and welcome source of work for those trained in the thespian arts who had the misfortune to grow up in that then cheerless place. They must have been upset when the ruling was rescinded – as well as the Provos whose words had been so crisply rendered, and presumably, too, Mrs Thatcher and her colleagues  – a kind of lose-lose position.
   Perhaps Mr Griffin should be allowed only to have his words spoken on television through the mouth of a Spitting Image puppet – but then, would that, too, give his utterances more credibility, or would we even notice?

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