TWO weeks ago I defended the ludicrous Rocking Egg Man sculpture that’s up for a Turner Prize, on the grounds that every time I saw it, I couldn’t stop laughing. On Thursday night on Question Time I saw Rocking Egg Man in the flesh.

BNP leader Nick Griffin was about as effective as the ridiculous sculpture. Sweating, shifting, shuffling, giggling inappropriately, ducking even the simplest of questions, his appearance, if you take him at his word that he is a professional politician, was hilarious.

The rent-a-mob who came to demonstrate against him simply looked foolish. We’d been promised Hitler Mk II, the Dark Lord of Evil who had come to strip away everything we hold dear.

But what we actually got was Fatty Griffin, a bloke who appeared so thick he tried to claim that Churchill would have joined his party, that the British are Aborigines, that his Ku Klux Klan buddy was “an almost totally non-violent leader” and that he couldn’t say why he had previously denied the Holocaust.

And his point was what, exactly? Even Griffin didn’t seem to know.

Exposed to the light of audience scrutiny he failed to land one blow. If it was a boxing match, the ref would have stopped it after the second round.

Of course his views are odious and have no place in polite society, that goes without saying.

But in Britain, because of our love of free speech and our mania for diversity, which forces us to give weight to everyone’s views, even those of the evil and the feeble-minded, we are bedevilled with nutters, extremists and hate-merchants.

Griffin’s pals wave our Union Jack, insult Jews and black people.

Religious extremists are diligently protected by the police as they hurl abuse and loathing on soldiers at homecoming parades.

We are taunted by retired Irish terrorists, lectured by the lunatic, anti-gay fringe of the Church of England and, on occasion, have to put up with paedophiles telling us that actually, there’s nothing wrong with what they want to do to children.

Unfortunately we can’t just make them disappear and be done with it. And I think we should stop doing the political equivalent of sticking our fingers in our ears and going “la-la-la”.

After what I saw on Thursday I reckon we need to get them all on Question Time, complete with an audience of vested interests, and let nature take its course.

And then, maybe, we can get back to real politics and start questioning the Jack Straws, Baroness Warsi’s and Chris Huhnes of this world about the real issues; like why are the bailed-out bankers still bleeding us dry with their bonuses, and why MPs are refusing to pay back the money from their fiddled expenses.

All the time we allow ourselves to be diverted by the BNP sideshow they will get off scot-free. Which, I am guessing, is probably just the way some politicians like it.