Wanna see Britain at its most ugly? Then why not focus entirely on small pockets of people with idiotic views on the world? Yessir, that’s what Young, British and Angry (BBC Three, Wednesday, 19 May, 9pm) did last night and boy oh boy, there was some dry-heaving to be had.

It is very, very easy to slag off the English Defence League, which this show focused on almost entirely. Taking shots at the EDL is easier than fishing with nuclear warheads. Naturally, being a lazy writer, I’ll do just that. However, in the interests of fairness, I’ll take swipes at everyone else as well.

The unfairly maligned BBC Three showed, once again, that it isn’t just that stupid channel that broadcasts people who only ever eat fruit pastilles for their tea or women gyrating in bikinis that barely cover their clitoris. BBC Three, as ever, goes in to tread where most other broadcasters wimp away. This was a primetime show focusing on one of the most tricky subjects in British life and what was BBC One doing? Allowing us all to wish death on children dressing up like businessmen.

Judging BBC Three on its worst output is unfair. You don’t get people being sniffy about BBC One, based solely on Homes Under The Hammer or Yet Another Repeat Of Dad’s Army.

Hmmm.

And so, Ben Anderson gamely breached the lines to meet the people of the EDL, the right wing faction that has been set up to protest against what it sees as the spread of militant Islam in Britain, to show young people what was being said, how it was being pushed and what the fall out could be.

Of course, what he uncovered was a load of lumpy headed people who, I’m afraid to say, did look an awful lot like the hooligans I once stood on the terraces with in years gone by.

Mercifully however, this show didn’t simply point and shout “OOOH! You’re all big nasty bullies! Stop being Nazis!“. Unlike the United Against Fascism lot it has to be said, whose actions leave them looking as bad, if not worse than the EDL if the recent protest in Bolton was anything to go by.

No, this show wanted to simply bed-in and let the story unfurl all by itself and, of course, you catch more flies with sugar than you do with vinegar and, when you’re stood next to a mountainous pile of shit like the EDL, there’s going to be many flies to trap.

Fact is, everywhere the EDL go, trouble ain’t far away. The head of the group, who happens to have the surname of Singh, thereby allowing everyone to coo “See! We’re not racists! So ner!“, despite the fact that no-one seems to cotton on to the fact that people who aren’t white can be incredibly racist as well, for the most part offered a slick answer for every criticism given.

You wouldn’t expect anything else right? Everyone at the top of anything is able to weasel out of a tricky question with a carefully worded apology or backtrack. However, Singh isn’t the problem. The people at ground level… those people who shout “PAKIS OUT!” and refer to all Muslims as rapists and job-stealers are the ugly face of Britain.

It goes without saying that so too are the militant Muslim extremists. They too provide a face for the ugliest aspect of human nature, leaving the rest of us peering into the maelstrom wondering what went so badly wrong.

However, that’s exactly what this is – a goldfish bowl.

The percentage of people involved on both sides of the argument combined is so negligible that it is very easy to forget just how open and wonderful England is. What this programme really showed was just how fast bad-news travels. Think about it: You go to a shop and buy a paper and the woman behind the counter is nice to you. How many people do you tell? None. If she spits in your face, you tell the whole world.

And really, what we’re faced with is two camps that are equally angry and extreme, all out to change the world under the misapprehension that they’re political freedom fighters, leaving the rest of the country weary and sick of explaining to everyone that “we’re not like them… either of them.”

And so, the disaffection continues, leaving right-minded people too jaded to keep pointing out that we’re all pretty good at getting along… prompting the extremists to believe every hysterical snippet of false information to send them into a frenzy because Asda have given Santa a lethal injection so no-one gets offended, despite the fact they did their entire Christmas food shop there, complete with buy-one-get-nine-free on shitty baubles and paper hats.

This programme, focusing on one side and keen to let them speak, showed that not everyone in the EDL is a complete idiot. However, it also showed us all that this band of people are yearning for a fight. There’s too many similarities to the hooligans that blighted Britain for so many years in the past, even down to the dismal songs they sing.

Naturally, they’ll see themselves as a white equivalent of the Black Panther party or something, militantly rising up against a perceived injustice… but they acted like pricks as well. All militant protest groups are loudmouthed gobshites who have consistently failed to notice that, if you want to get anywhere politically, then you have to play ball with those vapid twerps in suits down Westminster. Smashing up kebab houses is never going to help a cause is it? Especially given that, come Friday night, EDL types are most likely to be found in there dribbling chilli sauce down their Henri Lloyd jumpers.

In times of recession, people like to strike out at the nearest target. Seeing as the vast majority of Muslim families live in built-up working class areas, shoulder-to-shoulder with working class white communities, they believe that ‘they’ are coming over in droves and taking over Britain.

Open your eyes in any town or city and you’ll find that Britain is still very much a white country that plays by whitey’s rules. The EDL are trying to punch the sun because it makes shadows. Thankfully, Young, British and Angry decided to engage with them to see what they had to say. Alas, with crushing inevitability, we all soon discovered that the answer amounted to little more than wanting to get pissed on cans of Stella and a ruck in a town centre.

Well done BBC Three for having the sheer bloody nerve to send your man in over the frontline to engage with these people and well done for showing it in a peak slot whilst all the other supposed ‘serious’ channels showed the Soap Awards and Jamie Oliver tarting around with a pan in Athens.