No not the one being had by bankers preparing themselves for their Christmas bonuses but the one that has managed to even overshadow that little controversey (and everything else this week). The BNP’s appearance on Question Time last night caused all sorts of excitement. Anti-fascist protestors scuffled with police outside BBC TV Centre in west London before the show was filmed. Peter Hain said earlier in the week that the BNP is currently "an unlawful body" as it operates a white-only policy for membership. The party indicated that it would amend its constitution to address this. And everyone else was just itching to see how Griffin actually performed on the night.

The net result? The BBC probably had record viewings for its flagship political debate programme (which rightly or wrongly deviated somewhat from its normal format into something of a public flogging). Griffin was left looking, sweaty, inadequate and ridiculed. Our democracy seems to have remained intact. And ironically the most damage was done by the protesters; six were arrested and three policemen were injured.

In the event there was nothing unlawful about having the BNP up there, they received a million votes, but the true outfall of this episode won’t be know for some time. Let’s hope last night’s kangaroo court bending of the normally impartial QT format doesn’t end up giving Griffin and the BNP sympathy votes.