Say what you like about British TV, we don't get shows like this

ABC's "The View" had ultra-conservative columnist Ann Coulter facing off against Whoopi "Guinan" Goldberg on the issue of race. It was quite the show:

GOLDBERG: Everyone was a segregationist darling , everybody was! White people were, they didn't matter whether they were Republican or not.
COULTER: Republicans were not...
GOLDBERG: Bullshit! Bullshit, I'm sorry! That's bull, that's bull
COULTER: No, no that is not... ok just read chapter 14 in the book, the first Republicans to be elected in the south
GOLDBERG: I listen to my grandmother, who was there! Who remembers what happened.
COULTER: Howard Baker, an aggressive integrationist, first Republican elected in Tennessee to the Senate, Winthrop Rockefeller, first republican governor in Arkansas, an integrationist.

Personally, I think British TV is the poorer for not having discussions like these. I can't conceive of a BBC programme that would invite Ann Coulter as a guest -- though I suspect they'd be just fine with Our Whoopi.

BBC producers: I would like to see a Question Time with Ann Coulter, Whoopi Goldberg, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Richard Dawkins and Rowan Williams. You know you want to make this happen.