Geert Wilders

I haven't seen the film Fitna - nor do I especially want to - but the banning of its creator Geert Wilders from the UK raises some extremely disturbing concerns.

Firstly there has been the attitude of Lord Ahmed - who will probably be spending some time in the near future as a guest of Her Majesty following a conviction for dangerous driving - who has basically intimidated the House of Lords into cancelling the showing of the film at the HoL by threatening to "personally mobilise 10,000 Muslims to prevent Wilders from entering the Upper House " (Melanie Phillips in the Spectator) which shows a contempt for the freedom of our Parliamentary institutions that is beyond belief.

Secondly, Wilders, for all of his unpleasant far-right politics, is a member of the legislature of another EU state - the Netherlands and leads a legitimate party. It comes to a pretty pass when we ban Dutch MPs from the UK.

Thirdly, this shows appeasement by the Home Office, something which is beginning to become a habit at the moment, probably caused by the worst Home Secretary for years.

Finally, I suspect that the BNP will make their odious hay with this.