BNP Welsh broadcast pulled by BBC...

...but has the BBC been manipulated?

The BBC has pulled the plug on a BNP broadcast due to air tonight on BBC Radio Wales, on the grounds that the broadcast defamed the Chief Constable of North Wales Police, Richard Brunstrom.

The BNP were told that the broadcast could not go to air unless references to Brunstrom were removed.

It is highly irregular for political parties to use election broadcasts to attack non-political individuals, particularly public servants.

In a whining justification published on their website the BNP says:

The broadcast does indeed focus on the record of the Chief Constable, one of the most politically correct cops in the country and is justifiably scathing about his forces’ handling of the Wrexham riots in the summer of 2003 but as a senior public figure funded by taxpayers he is in a position where he expects to be robustly criticised in the same way government ministers and senior politicians of all parties expect criticism.

Which would be all very well if Brunstrom were to have equal air time set aide to him to answer the BNP's smears - but the BNP knows full well that won't happen.

In fact the BNP must have known from the beginning that to use election air-time to attack Brunstrom would be unacceptable.

There is more than a suspicion that the BNP has deliberately engineered this outcome, happy to sacrifice a broadcast very few will hear in favour of gaining much-needed headlines from having it banned.

Ever ready to play the victim, expect the BNP to claim that its "free speech" has been infringed, and to work up a nice little conspiracy theory to explain the ban.

But don't expect them to thank the BBC for saving them the horrendous costs of a libel suit from Brunstrom.

That's not the game they're playing.