BBC censors a joke

But lots of foul language is allowed

"Its irreverent take on the week's best political stories rarely raises an eyebrow outside the Westminster village. But BBC1 show This Week threw bosses into a panic yesterday after host Andrew Neil light-heartedly compared [black] MP Diane Abbott to a chocolate HobNob biscuit.

Corporation chiefs, terrified of a race backlash, immediately removed all trace of the episode from its websites and iPlayer on-demand service following 15 complaints from viewers.

But the move has infuriated licence fee payers, many of whom have flooded message boards demanding to know why the programme has been taken off the site earlier than usual.

Last night, politicians and lobby groups accused the BBC of being ' institutionally politically correct' and ' paranoid'. Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe said: 'The BBC are totally paranoid about some things and utterly dismissive of other incidents. 'I only wish that they would take such a hard line against swearing, rather than things like this.'

The episode - which was broadcast immediately after BNP leader Nick Griffin's controversial appearance on Question Time last Thursday - opened with Neil joking about Gordon Brown's favourite biscuit with co-hosts Miss Abbott and Michael Portillo.... Neil went on to compare the panelists as types of biscuit, saying: 'Here we have our very own chocolate HobNob and custard cream - Diane Abbott and Michael Portillo.'

MP John Whittingdale, chair of the media select committee, said the corporation had 'completely overreacted' and called for the missing show to be reinstated online. 'Nobody could seriously believe calling Diane Abbott a chocolate HobNob and Michael Portillo a custard cream to be racist,' he added.

Vivienne Pattison, director of lobby group Mediawatch, said: 'There was also the offensive remarks made about the Queen on Mock The Week recently, which was much worse but was allowed to go out.

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