The BNP has won a council seat in Sevenoaks, Kent and with that victory it has brought about more free media coverage then it could possibly have afforded.I am not a BNP supporter, but I have to say that my position on Freedom of Speech means that I have to accept that in return for that freedom, opinions that I disagree with must also be heard. It is my opinion that just covering our ears and

The BNP on "The Big Questions" I watched the BBC's "The Big Questions" yesterday morning where one of the big questions considered was something like "Does the BNP have the right to freedom of speech?". First of all, I should say that the question itself is preposterous - of course the BNP have the same right to freedom of speech as anyone else. Anyone who says otherwise IS a fascist. The ver...

Asked to what extent the Prime Minister thought the election of two BNP MEPs was a strong argument against proportional representation, the PMS said that that was a party political question and he would refer people to the Labour Party. Asked whether the Prime Minister thought that elected representatives should be pelted with eggs, the PMS said that he did not think this was a matter we would wan...

Now that Barack Obama has become US President, media attention seems to be turning to ethnic minorities in British politics, starting with Parliament not being a mirror image of society and now focusing on government office, specifically that of the Prime Minister. It is claimed that it will take “decades” for there to be a black

The European Parliament will vote on the issue of press freedom in Italy at its next plenary session, after strong pressure from Italian opposition parties to address the dangers posed by the control over the media exercised by the country's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

Apparently the worst excesses by a government minister will be revealed tomorrow in the Telegraph. I have some pride in the fact that I have read the Telegraph every day for the last two weeks but never bought it. Such are the benefits of having an elderly relative.Let's look on the bright side of all this. At last the public are becoming engaged in politics! Yesterday someone totally unpolitical

A curious set of coincidencies today - I went from the car where a news report was attacking the Tory decision to launch a personal attack on the Prime Minister to the house where ITN were doing the same. Then I clicked on iPlayer to watch Cameron's very impressive performace on the BBC Politics show, only for the questions to be about class, background and being a toff. Either the media want...

When I went over to 4 Millbank yesterday, there was a demonstration outside by about 15 members of the PCS trade union. They were objecting to the fact that BNP leader Nick Griffin was being interviewed on the Daily Politics. I had a chat with one of the demonstrators - who turned out to be a reader of the blog and a West Ham fan - who explained their reasons for being there. He thought it was wro...

Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Media Wales today as part of his brief trip to Wales. Mr Brown spoke with Welsh rugby legend Neil Jenkins and met business leaders from around Wales during the visit.

I’m at the conference “Media and politics – the tension between freedom of the press and personal rights in print media and the internet” (more here) – refresh the page for the latest entries. 1921 – Hajo Friedrich is making the introduction, introducing Klaus-Heiner Lehne from the CDU, chair of the Legal Affairs Committee in the EP ...