AS MARR SAID....ON AND ON AND ON....

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I don't know how it was for you in your area, but in my area - the North West of England - the local section of The Politics Show plugged the gap left by the main programme by talking about a certain party donor: "Nationally there's been a lot of concern about the role played by the Conservative vice-chairman Lord Ashcroft," said foxy presenter Annabel Tiffin. "He's influential but he doesn't pay UK tax on most of his income."
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The programme's political editor Arif Ansari went to the marginal of Pendle to talk about "the peer with the pennies". He rehearsed all the figures before, with the utmost brevity, mentioning Lord Paul and certain unnamed Lib Dem donors. His first talking head was David Crausby, Labour MP for Bolton NE, who attacked Lord Ashcroft. Arif then talked to a Conservative councillor in Pendle, George Askew, who he challenged over Lord Ashcroft. The Lib Dems are also "circling", Arif said, and "not reassured by the Conservatives' arguments", as we heard from Lord Greaves, who attacked Lord Ashcroft. He then spoke to Andy Morgan, the Conservative candidate in the safe Labour seat of Bolton SE, asking him "So how do you feel when you look at some of your other colleagues who've got so much more (money) than you?"*
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Arif then interviewed the main candidates in Pendle. The sitting Labour MP Gordon Prentice was not interrupted. Nor was the Lib Dem candidate Afzal Anwah. Only the Conservative candidate Andrew Stephenson was interrupted - twice.
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Was something similar going on across the other regions?

SUNDAY TRADING RESUMES

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The Politics Show was back today, with Jon Sopel as puppet-like as ever. It was like it had never been away!
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It opened with two complementary interviews, one with David Frost of the British Chamber of Commerce (calling for public spending cuts) and the other with Brendan Barber of the T.U.C. (calling for increased taxes on high earners). Mr Frost got 3 minutes 36 seconds, whereas Mr Barber got 5 minutes 32 seconds. The socialist got two minutes more. That's BBC bias for you!
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Then came a soft interview with Labour's Alan Johnson. The Home Secretary's interview lasted 9 minutes 43 seconds, and but only contained 2 interruptions. Johnson's long and repeated attacks on the Tories were allowed to flow on, undammed. The Interruption Coefficient was a tiny o.2.

Max Cotton's report on MPs' lack of a contract of employment somewhat redressed the pro-left tendency of the programme by using Labour's Margaret Moran (Luton South) as its example of bad behaviour - though it did not label her as a Labour MP (which was a little bit naughty) - and gave Esther Rantzen and the seat's prospective Conservative candidate, Nigel Huddleston, a soundbite each. This redressing of the balance was somewhat undermined though by having two Labour MPs commenting on what MPs should do next, with Max having a friendly chat with the ubiquitous Stephen Pound and getting an earnest soundbite from the almost-as-ubiquitous John Mann.

Biased business as usual at The Politics Show.
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CODA: A SPOT OF TIFFIN WITH UKIP'S PAUL NUTTALL
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I won't be including the local bit of The Politics Show in my ongoing study, but it is worth noting that the North West edition with the delectable Annabel Tiffin featured an interview with UKIP's Paul Nuttall which, in typical Beeb style, lasted less than three minutes but contained no less than 6 interruptions, giving it a whopping I.C. of 2.4. It concentrated on "a couple of resignations"!