Radio 4 6pm news has just run an announcement that Jack Straw has agreed to appear on the same edition of Question Time as Nick Griffin. For more details see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8277399.stm .

The show will go out on Thursday October 22nd, from London.

I'm not surprised at the Labour Party's choice, but I am deeply disappointed. Apart from the fact that Straw totally fails to impress me as a politician, there are one or two things in his background which make me think he is not the man to stand up to a bully boy like Griffin. I'm thinking in particular of his comments about Muslim veils making him feel uncomfortable. And there was the instance of him caving in to pressure and letting the supposedly sick and senile Pinochet flee the country.

let's hope that at least one of the other panellists can show a bit more fire and commitment.