The chattering classes have chattered furiously about the appearance of the populist/nationalist/racist British National Party leader Nick Griffin on a BBC political panel debate.

I watched a few minutes, then jumped channel to watch some of an inane modern vampire film (Blade) which turned out to be so clunky that I went to bed in despair.

Having tried to watch the Griffin Show for a while, I concluded that the main UK political parties had a narrow escape.

Griffin was so clumsy, coarse and dim-witted that he missed a unique chance to confront the ruling establishment elite with ruthless but eloquent analysis of the growing gap between what the public wants and what it gets (immigration, EU, welfare state, corrupt behaviour by MPs and so on).

Had he done that, he might have had a real effect, in some ways for the better, by compelling our politicians to realise that they risk losing public trust very fast by over-governing and mal-governing the country in far too many areas.

As it is, the BNP’s nano-level ratings are set to soar, from 1% to definitely a bit more than that. And that is definitely the Labour Party’s fault. Or the Conservatives’. Or someone’s, for sure.

So for a while the establishment heaves a nervous sigh of relief and goes back to a troubled sleep.

Nothing to see here, people. Move along.