Did any of you read the Times today ? they rated Nick Griffin's performance on Question Time better than that of the Justice Minister Jack Straw who has the reputation as one of the best debaters in the House of Commons.

Sam Coates, the newspaper's chief political correspondent gave the British National Party chairman 8 out of 10 and said that he had achieved his game plan of acknowledging that "the elite" hates him, denying his extremism and concentrating on his key message of standing up for the British. The appearance will certainly see the BNP vote go up next election.

Coates said Nick was a vote winner because he looked sincere when saying that journalists deliberately misquoted him to make him look like "a monster"

He even acknowledged that Nick was a crowd pleaser when he said: "You people [pointing at Mr Straw] wouldn't even let us have our name [the English] on the census form"

In summary, The Times correspondence said: "Despite a couple of early wobbles, he got his message across in an hour of primetime TV, and by portraying himself as hated, made himself look like a victim of the establishment.

Jack Straw got a lower score but was criticised for claiming that Labour had immigration under control. A lot of people were unaware that Straw's father spend WW2 in prison while Nick Griffin's father did his patriotic duty in the Royal Air Force.