A BNP activist and former teacher has been cleared of racism by the General Teaching council. Adam Walker, 41, used a school laptop to post comments online describing immigrants as "savage animals" while working at Houghton Kepier Sports College, in Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham. He also claimed Britain was a "dumping ground for the filth of the third world".

Despite declaring itself "troubled" by Walker's views, the GTC decided that while Walker's postings demonstrated an attitude that might be considered racist, the specific references to immigrants were not necessarily "suggestive of any particular views on race". Its has been criticised by teaching unions including the NUT, whose leader, Christine Blower, described the decision as "perverse".

The decision, in March, by the then-schools secretary Ed Balls not to ban teachers from joining the BNP outright means that the debate has now descended into an argument over semantics. (The GTC, in effect, is saying it's not racist to describe immigrants in general as "filth", because immigrants are an ethnically diverse group -- a line of argument not unlike that of a comedian who makes jokes about black people saying "I'm not racist, I hate everyone...") But this threatens to obscure a more fundamental question:

should BNP members have any involvement in our schools at all?