MARCH'S I.C.s - THE PARTY AVERAGES

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My favourite measure of bias across the Beeb is the super-average interruption coefficient - which is calculated very simply by adding up all the individual I.C.s for each party & then dividing them by the number of interviewed granted to each party that month. As with all statistics, the larger the sample, the better the result - and the more significant any differences (hence the increase of the I.C. to 2 decimal places).

Here is how things worked out in March (as ever the number of interviews on which the averages are based appear in brackets):

UKIP (6) - 1.52
Conservatives (94) - 1.00
Labour (124) - 0.72
BNP (1) - 0.70
Lib Dems (72) - 0.64
SNP (10) - 0.53
PUP (1) - 0.40
Plaid Cymru (1) - 0.40
Independents (2) - 0.40
UUP (2) - 0.35
Green (2) - 0
DUP (1) - 0
TUV (1) - 0
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Another month and yet more evidence that the Conservatives are significantly more likely to be interrupted by BBC interviewers than their Labour equivalents.
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And another month and yet more evidence that UKIP fares worse than any other party, including the Conservatives, at the hands of the biased BBC.
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FEBRUARY'S I.C.s - THE PARTY AVERAGES

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My favourite measure of bias across the Beeb is the super-average interruption coefficient - which is calculated very simply by adding up all the individual I.C.s for each party & then dividing them by the number of interviewed granted to each party that month. As with all statistics, the larger the sample, the better the result - and the more significant any differences (hence the increase of the I.C. to 2 decimal places).

Here is how things worked out in February:

Plaid Cymru (2) - 0.95
Independent Conservative (1) - 0.90
Conservative (81) - 0.89
Green (1) - 0.8
UKIP (2) - 0.70
Labour (106) - 0.69
SNP (6) - 0.55
Lib Dems (50) - 0.54
UUP (1) - 0.30
DUP (3) - 0.17

NOVEMBER'S I.C.s - SUPER-AVERAGES FOR EACH PARTY

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My favourite measure of bias across the Beeb is the super-average interruption coefficient - which is calculated very simply by adding up all the individual I.C.s for each party & then dividing them by the number of interviewed granted to each party that month. As with all statistics, the larger the sample, the better the result (with the consequence that the Plaid figure, based on 2 interviews, is probably not typical!) - and more significant any differences (hence the increase of the I.C. to 2 decimal places).

Here are how things worked out in November 2009:
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Conservatives (95 interviews) - 0.86
SNP (15 interviews) - 0.81
UKIP (9 interviews) - 0.80
Labour (149 interviews) - 0.67
Liberal Democrats (39 interviews) - 0.48
Independents (3 interviews) - 0.27
Sinn Fein (2 interviews) - 0.15
Greens (4 interviews) - 0.13
Plaid Cymru (2 interviews) - 0

There you go. More empiral proof of the BBC's bias, albeit not so sharply etched as in other months. *

SEPTEMBER'S I.C.s - SUPER-AVERAGE I.C.s

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Well, here are the big figures - the average for each party of all the results for last month. And what do they show?

Plaid Cymru - 1.2
SNP - 1.1
English Democrats - 0.8
Conservatives - 0.7
Labour - 0.7
Lib Dems - 0.6
UKIP - 0.5
DUP - 0.5
Independent - 0.4
Green - 0
UUP - 0
SDLP -0

And there you have it - a dead-heat between Labour and the Conservatives, with the Lib Dems close behind.

This month's figures, put bluntly, show no proof of overall bias whatsoever!!!!

As I heard this month's chain of interviews unfold I was hearing it for myself, so I knew these sort of figures were coming. So unlike June and July, where marked anti-Conservative bias was strongly suggested, and even August, where a much smaller anti-Conservative bias was suggested, September has proved a remarkable month indeed at the BBC. The Lib Dems, normally treated with kid gloves, were duffed up right, left and centre. The Conservatives received a greater number of easy rides than is usual from some of the unlikeliest interviewers and many Labour politicians were given tougher rides than usual, again from some of the unlikeliest interviewers - balancing out, all in all, to an identical overall I.C. between the two main parties.

This is, of course, how things should be.

Partly the result may be down to the fact that the Conservatives have been interviewed so little - which will change with their party conference. Then we will really see if the BBC is really changing its spots.

So will it continue? Is it a statistical freak, or the beginning of a significant trend? How will the Conservatives be treated next week?

There's only one way to find out.

AUGUST I.C.s - AND WHAT OF THE I.C. SUPER-AVERAGES?

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The super-average I.C.s (please click on label for I.C. averages for the thinking - and the cautionary words - behind these) are as follows:

UKIP - 0.6
SNP - 0.6
Conservatives - 0.5
Labour - 0.4
Liberal Democrats - 0.2
Green - 0.1
Independants - 0
Plaid Cymru - 0

This shows the familiar trend but is far less sharp than last month.

MID-MONTH REVIEW

It's the middle of the month, so here's an update on the the Interruption Coefficient findings for July, looked at from three angles.

So far I've covered 151 interviews.


AIRTIME

Totalling up the lengths of all the interviews I've been able to work out an exact percentage for the amount of airtime each party has been granted by the BBC so far this month:

Labour 57.1%
Conservatives 24.8%
Lib Dems 9.9%
SNP 3.2%
Greens 1.4%
Crossbench 1.3%
BNP 1.3%
UKIP 0.6%
Plaid Cymru 0.4%

This certainly looks to me like rampant institutional pro-Labour bias. Even granted that they are the governing party &, thus, liable for greater questioning, the staggering scale of the Labour Party's dominance of the BBC airwaves (an absolute majority, a landslide, more than all the other parties combined) is surely anti-democratic.

Incidentally, the UKIP figure of 0.6% is a disgrace. In the last nationwide election (June's European election) they gained 16.5% of the vote. You would have thought that this would have entitled them to more airtime on the Beeb. Not a bit of it.

The cross-bench figure is for Lord Owen, who is a non-aligned member in the House of Lords.


NUMBER OF INTERVIEWS GRANTED TO EACH PARTY

BNP - 1
Conservatives - 39
Crossbench - 1
Green - 4
Labour - 76
Lib Dems - 22
Plaid Cymru - 1
SNP - 5
UKIP - 2

Note here how the Lib Dem and Conservative figures rise in relation to Labour, revealing the fact that the Labour Party interviews tended to be longer. Again though, Labour is dominant.


AVERAGE NUMBER OF INTERRUPTIONS PER PARTY

This is in many ways going to be one of the Interruption Coefficient's most telling results. These figures are obtained by simply adding all the interruptions contained in all the interviews with a particular party together & then working out an average (by dividing it by the number of interviews granted to each party).

BNP - 8
Plaid Cymru - 5
SNP - 5
Conservatives - 3.5
Labour -3
UKIP - 2
Lib Dems - 1.5
Green - 0.5
Crossbench - 0

So though, as stated above, you might expect the governing Labour Party to receive a little more airtime, so that they can be questioned on government policy, these results reveal that Her Majesty's official opposition, in fact, receive tougher questioning than Her Majesty's government. So much for that potential BBC excuse!

Note the Liberal Democrat and Green figures & see what an easy ride they are given. This seems to me to be a particularly telling result.

All the nationalist parties fair badly, a trend I noticed last month too.


FINAL THOUGHT

All this goes to show that "there is a democratic deficit in this country which is getting more dangerous by the year" (as someone, I can't think who!, said recently) & the BBC is a big part of the problem.

At this month's end, I will try to use these figures to help further the fight against BBC bias. I have received some invaluable advice from fellow bloggers on how to do this - and do it I will.
Will it do any good? Only time will tell.