*
I've been forwarded an excellent letter by Steven Morson, UKIP's prospective parliamentary candidate for Bromsgrove - currently home (or one of them) to Julie Kirkbride MP - written in complaint to the chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons. It chimes in with a good deal of what this blog has been saying and merits reading in full. It contains many fresh examples of BBC bias and is wonderfully readable. The wider its circulation the better. Steven's frustration is palpable and wholly understandable, as you will see. Even if you're not a UKIP supporter, please give it a read. A great deal of it applies to the BBC's treatment of the centre-right as a whole.
Sir Michael Lyons
Chairman
BBC Trust
Broadcasting House
London
W1A 1AA 29th August 2009
Dear Sir Michael,
With immediate effect, I am withholding my television licence fee, and as I intend to encourage many more people to do the same, I think it is rather important that you know why.
I realise that a single licence fee of £142.50 is a ‘drop in the ocean’ compared to the £3.36 billion annual income from this state-enforced licence tax, and a fraction of a percentage point of the obscene £141 million in loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB), but I feel that it will become a story in it’s own right. I have joined the Facebook group “10 Million for No TV Licence”, which at the time of writing, has 537,400 members.
I doubt that you will be surprised to learn that I am a member and prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) of the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP). I intend to campaign within my party to introduce the proposition that our party adopts the abolition of the TV licence tax as policy in its Culture, Media and Sport portfolio.
My letters of complaint through the BBC’s normal channels, plus those of my friends and colleagues, have become an object lesson in futility, which is why several of us have taken this step. In many cases, the responses of the BBC are shared amongst the wider membership - more for ridicule than illumination - and are held as examples of anfractuous reasoning and needless digressions. Please note that I do not expect a point-by-point refutation of this letter, as some or all of the points will already have been inadequately answered by your Complaints Department. The request I am making is for a fundamental shift in the practice of political broadcasting, including conformity with legislation, guidelines and commissioned reports, and the basic concept of fairness.
My grievances
In my opinion, the BBC has, throughout both election periods stipulated below:
1)
Broken its covenant to “educate, inform and entertain” its audience. Virtually all of the output of all television channels has been aptly described by Peter Hitchens as “mental slurry”, and the BBC is as guilty as anyone of producing it
2)
Failed to provide adequate coverage or at least reflect the political views of people and interested parties in anything other than the three main political parties, i.e. Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat
3)
Treated the United Kingdom Independence Party as a single-issue, extremist party and never once asked them to explain or discuss their range of policies that have been in place for more than a year in the context of a serious discussion (I exclude the bromidic BBC 1 “Question Time” programme)
4)
Failed to take the concerns of many UKIP supporters over the accusations of unfair coverage in these election periods seriously
5)
Failed to follow its own “Editorial Guidelines (Politics and Public Policy) – Broadcasting during elections”, viz: “…news judgements at election time are made within a framework of democratic debate [your bold emphasis] which ensures that due weight is given to hearing the views and examining and challenging the policies of all parties. Significant minor parties should also receive some network coverage during the campaign.”
6)
By dint of points 2), 3) and 5), potentially and possibly interfered with, or at least attempted to affect, the outcome of two elections in contravention of its charter and UK laws
7)
Wilfully failed to observe Bridcut Principles 1 to 5 (listed in Appendix A), failed to provide Principle 8, and seemingly couldn’t care about 11 or 12.
8)
Underestimated the public need for radical change at the very heart of our political institutions, especially the House of Commons, by stifling all but mainstream opinion, and failed to reflect this view in a cross-party consensus
9)
Committed a breach of section 5.5. (and possibly others) of The Ofcom Broadcasting Code (Oct. 2008), viz:
“Due impartiality on matters of political or industrial controversy and matters relating to current public policy must be preserved on the part of any person providing a service (listed above). This may be achieved within a programme or over a series of programmes taken as a whole.”
10)
Continued it’s trashing of the image and reputation of our Royal family and its place in the affections of many British people and our state’s constitution, by persistent and unchallenged trivialisation, negative reporting and imagery, and denigration through BBC radio and TV “comedy” output. As a case in point, a ‘brand new comedy series’ on BBC Radio 4 on 21st August at 6:30 pm aimed at mocking the weeks headlines started in the first episode with a non-story from the Times turned into a ‘joke’ at the expense of Prince Edward, within two minutes of starting.
The straw that ‘broke the camels back’ for me was the by-election in Norwich North on 23rd July. I drove to Norwich to volunteer in Glenn Tingle’s campaign, and saw first hand the disgraceful media bias our candidate had to tolerate. This was only part of a profound and unsubtle anti-UKIP broadcasting policy by television and radio programming to deny a voice to a legitimate and respectable party - the fourth largest in UK politics, and second largest in European politics. The BBC actively promoted the Green Party as an alternative to the two main parties, without even mentioning UKIP on several occasions in its reportage.
4th June elections
In the approaching weeks to the June 4th County Council and European Parliament elections, I noticed the following transgressions:-
1.
Watching repeats of “Have I Got News For You” reminded me how, whenever UKIP is mentioned, it is merely for cheap ridicule and unfailingly we are represented by Robert Kilroy-Silk. The fact that he left the party in January 2005 doesn’t seem to trouble the programme makers or the BBC commissioning / editorial staff.
2.
On 8th May this year on Radio 4’s Today programme, after listening, I felt compelled to e-mail this complaint:-
This morning, Nigel Farage MEP was interviewed by James Naughtie. Throughout the interview, he constantly shuffled papers, and on my stereo, it sounded so close to the microphone that it almost drowned Mr. Farage out.
This is not the first time; far from it. He seems to make a habit of doing this when his vocal intonation betrays the fact that he feels dislike / derision for the subject of his interview.
Please ask him to desist.
The reply (typical of its kind) included this utter irrelevance:
James is an extremely experienced and well respected presenter…
A view not shared by me or the blogosphere apparently.
3.
In the 10:00 pm news on BBC 1 on or around 11th May, Nick Robinson –the BBC’s so-called Political Editor, was delivering a live piece to Huw Edwards in the studio from Westminster, about the MPs expenses scandal and its possible effects on the coming 4th June poll. He included this:-
…and when people are asked about how they might vote in the European elections, Labour is neck-and-neck at 19% with the U.K. Independence Party. A huge surge of support for them, that despite the fact that one of the MEPs they elected last time is currently in prison for being on benefit fraud [sic]. He was, I ought to say, expelled from the party.
This was clearly a reference to Ashley Mote, MEP. As many UKIP officials were tired of explaining even by then, Mote withheld vital information (a pending civil court case for housing benefit fraud) from the Party when he applied to us for candidature. This would have precluded him standing for any office in the party, much less a parliamentary seat. Ashley Mote was released from jail in November 2007 from his subsequent conviction, eighteen months before Mr. Robinson’s report. Nick Robinson was either wilfully and artfully propagandist, or woefully incompetent and outdated with his ‘facts’. In either case, is he a suitable journalist to hold the BBC’s most senior political reporting post, or was he merely ensuring that facts didn’t get in the way of a “good story”? Or obeying orders?
4.
In BBC1’s Question Time in May, a woman asked if the MP expenses scandal would give a boost to “….extremist parties like the BNP?” David Dimbleby asked her “By extremist, do you also mean UKIP?” Why? By whose criteria (apart from Dimbleby’s) is UKIP considered “extremist”?
5.
On 21st May edition of the same programme (from Salisbury), the normal complement of five ‘talking heads’ was bizarrely increased by the presence of Yasmin Alibi-Brown, the BBC’s favourite and ubiquitous rent-a-Leftie (and habitual interrupter), ensuring that Marta Andreasen’s contribution – as UKIP Treasurer – was kept to an absolute minimum.
6.
In Michael Ball’s Radio 2 programme on a Sunday morning before 4th June, Peter Riddell of The Times was the guest reviewer of the Sunday newspapers. I have admired Peter’s insights, analysis and writing for many years until, when discussing MPs expenses and the 4th June, he stated that ‘this will give a boost to “….extremist parties like the BNP and UKIP”…’
7.
On 3rd June, UKIP Leader Nigel Farage was interviewed by Emily Maitlis for BBC 2 Newsnight. It was shameful; hostile questioning is expected, but constant interruptions are not.
8.
On polling day – 4th June - there was virtually no coverage of the story behind multiple cases of an attempt at electoral fraud by councils up and down the country who issued ballot papers folded to obscure the UKIP box at the bottom of the paper. Nigel Farage threatened to demand a rerun of the European elections and demanded the resignation of Elections Minister Michael Wills because of fears that our party had lost votes as its name fell below the crease – machine formed in many cases - of the folded ballot paper. The Electoral Commission had to issue urgent advice to polling stations and returning officers to hand out unfolded ballot papers to voters. I heard nothing in the BBC news of this. The BNP claim that they picked up many votes this way that would otherwise have gone to us.
Post election
After 4th June elections, I noticed the following:
1.
In the BBC 1 Question Time programme on 11th June, UKIP was not mentioned once; not by the panel or the audience. For a programme that seeks to explore and discuss the week’s politics and current events, this is far more than extraordinary or coincidental. Presumably, this programme is recorded and then edited for broadcast, so only one of two scenarios is possible in this case; either a) no-one in that studio mentioned UKIP even once, or b) it was mentioned and then edited out. In the case of (a), this would be remarkable, as not only did UKIP poll second place in the European parliament elections, but were the only political party to increase their vote share on 2004 results. Surely someone would have raised this point? In addition, UKIP won several County Council seats, Labour no longer controlled a single county council in England and the Liberal Democrats reduced to one. Labour lost three quarters of their councillors in England and resulted with less than the Lib Dems. How could UKIP not have been mentioned?
2.
However, if point 1) seems odd, what is absolutely peculiar is that Question Time was followed - as usual – by “This Week”, but we fared no better. If there was a place for discussion and deep political analysis, it was here (I was a regular viewer). The only time UKIP was mentioned was by Diane Abbott MP, but it was dismissive and in passing. That Andrew Neil did not mention UKIP is just unfathomable!
3.
In the early hours of Monday 8th June as European ballot results were declared, Mike Nattrass MEP stated in his speech that he asked the BBC for a debate on the Lisbon Treaty with the Conservatives and other party representatives. Why was this cut from the edited highlights of his speech in the news?
4.
Nikki Sinclaire, who was elected as an MEP for the West Midlands, was invited on to BBC1’s The Politics Show of 14th June for the West Midlands and an interview by Sarah Falkland. Before this, on the national segment, Ken Clarke, Conservative MP was interviewed live about public spending, debt, the NHS and Royal Mail. Ms. Sinclaire was prevented from seeing any monitors in her time in the studio, so it is perhaps just as well that she wasn’t questioned on his responses to Jon Sopel’s questions.
5.
In an appallingly biased West Midlands segment on this programme, Susana Mendonça preceded an interview with “one of our regular commentators” - Prof. Mick Temple of Stafford University - with the fact that in the West Midlands, UKIP’s increase in vote share was the highest in the country. He said:
“I think UKIP have been very [his emphasis] lucky. Their performance has not been brilliant, they are themselves plagued by expenses scandals, and yet they picked up and extra seat in the West Midlands which quite frankly I don’t think they deserved! I think those Conservative voters who voted UKIP are going to come back to the Conservatives in a general election, but this is not a clear indication that the Conservatives will win the next general election; on the votes cast in the European and local elections, they’ll be lucky to scrape a working majority. That’s not good enough a year before an election.”
It is a political tenet of our age that many habitual voters of the three main parties vote UKIP in a European election because they trust us - almost more - than anyone else. This was mentioned to me, unprompted, by Conservatives at the county and European vote counts, even by Ms. Julie Kirkbride – my MP. It seems to be a revelation to Prof. Temple, who seems to be a professor of food science judging by these sour grapes and rotten tomatoes!
‘Deserved’? Why was no-one invited to offer a response to counter this ignorant nonsense, especially as Nikki Sinclaire MEP was sitting in the studio? If Mr. Temple had been on the campaign trail with UKIP activists in the region, he would have seen first-hand the enormous amount of hard work and personal investment made by ordinary people committed to bringing decent, honest change to British and European politics. It was rewarded in the vote share.
“A working majority”? Since the end of last year, polls have put the Conservatives at a minimum of 9%, and mostly this year in the 13 – 19% range, ahead of Labour. This by any measure would ensure a very healthy majority for the governing party.
Moreover, to which “expenses scandals” was he referring? Ashley Mote, as explained, was effectively nothing to do with UKIP, and Tom Wise is awaiting trial on such charges. Unless, like everyone else at the BBC and everyone they interview, he is presciently convinced of Mr. Wise’ guilt. Perhaps I’m alone in thinking it strange that I have never once heard mention on the BBC that the Conservative’s Chief Whip in the European parliament, Den Dover, was required to pay back £445,000 in “unaccountable expenditure”.
This same segment then went on to interview Michael Cashman, now the lone Labour MEP in the West Midlands. He said:
“UKIP as I said earlier, it’s a protest vote. They stand for one thing - pulling out. They were given an easy ride….the denunciation of all of the mainstream parties lifted UKIP and sadly, in other regions, gave oxygen and breath and support to the British National Party.”
More bilge. As I have pointed out in previous correspondence with your Complaints Department and on many weblog pages, if you starve UKIP of the oxygen of publicity, you may end up with some curious and undesirable election results. We were positively asphyxiated by the BBC, and lo and behold, Nick Griffin – BNP Leader - won an MEP seat in the North West.
(Every member of UKIP I have met detests the BNP as much as I, a fact of which I am immensely proud.) If UKIP had polled 17,000 more votes in that region, we would have taken that seat. I have heard people espouse the theory that effectively, the BBC actively campaigned for this BNP victory. Whatever anyone thinks of UKIP – propagandising and prejudices aside, we are nothing like the BNP; I speak as a three-year member. I also never tire of pointing out that in the 1980’s, the voices of Sinn Fein’s political leaders were dubbed by actors to - in theory – deny the IRA the ‘oxygen of publicity’. But at least their words got out.
Just as I thought this programme had cornered the market in ill-thought out nonsense and anti-UKIP propaganda with the previous two contributions, Susana Mendonça introduces an interview with Liz Lynne, Liberal Democrat MEP with this line:
“ …the fourth placed Liberal Democrats, who keep their one MEP in the region, warn that UKIP’s success is bad news for the Midlands.”
Liz Lynne MEP said:
“If you don’t get MEPs going in there to work, then they can’t stand up for their constituents so I hope they will change their mind. I hope they will engage with the whole process to make sure we have more jobs coming into this region, more funding coming into this region. That is what the job of an MEP is.
I don’t think Mike Nattrass MEP needs to be reminded of that, as he is the only person – anywhere - to tell us that in October last year, the EU parliament approved a €97 million subsidy for bullfighting (after we banned foxhunting), and a €305 million subsidy for growing some of the most carcinogenic tobacco known to man (after we banned smoking in public places). He also tells us of lost contracts due to EU Legislation (e.g. for British trucks that went to Austria instead of LDV in his constituency – sealing their fate) and exorbitant conformity on-costs, the chicanery of the EU Budget, the obscenity of the Common Agricultural Policy, a collapsing parliament roof (Strasbourg – which could have killed 300 people if the EU parliament was sitting), and police assaults on legitimate protestors. He also warned us that the British and French were attempting to set up an EU Navy – to the alarm of British admirals. UKIP’s MEPs carry out sterling work, making sure that the unsustainable lunacy of the European Project is exposed, while MEPs of other parties slavishly toe the line and spuriously defend our membership.
How exactly was Liz Lynne describing “bad news” for ‘the Midlands’? East and West? Why does she think that they will do no work? Judging by results, Mike Nattrass works far harder at being an MEP than the others from whom I‘ve heard nothing. Whatsoever. (By the way, in a recent survey of the most effective MEPs in the European Parliament conducted by the Taxpayers Alliance, a UKIP MEP was rated 7th of 783 in a league table of effectiveness, with seven Labour MEPs – including Michael Cashman – in the bottom ten. And yet here he was berating UKIP.
Later in the national segment, Ken Clarke was again interviewed, this time on the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Again, this was unchallenged, even though Mr. Clarke is a passionate Europhile who is utterly opposed to any referendum by any government on any issue. This despite a poll on ConservativeHome weblog showing that 84% of Conservative party members want a British referendum on the Lisbon Treaty even if it is ratified by all member states.
In all, an utterly disgraceful programme.
Norwich North
In the campaign up to the Norwich North by-election of 23rd July, I noticed the following:
1)
Throughout BBC news coverage on TV and radio, several activists including myself, who had arrived from various parts of the country to help Glenn Tingle’s campaign, noticed that the only party mentioned other than the three main parties was the Green Party.
2)
On BBC 2 Newsnight on Wednesday 15th July in a segment centred in Norwich, interviews were conducted with the three main party candidates. This was followed by an interview with someone from Pitman Training in Norwich. Then, UKIP candidate Glenn Tingle was
given a few seconds, but in a resulting montage graphic of four squares, what was shown? Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat candidates… and a classroom at Pitman Training! We assumed they also had a candidate in the election!
3)
In the same programme, a BBC News East reporter went to a home for elderly people in Norwich, and interviewed four ladies. When he asked them who they would vote for, they said “Not the Conservatives or Labour!” (A moment’s silence). “The Greens?” asked the reporter! “Yes, the Greens. We think!” came the reply.
4)
Whose decision was it to exclude Glenn Tingle, UKIP candidate, from a televised hustings programme only days before the election?
5)
On the evening before my departure, I was told of the existence of a memorandum that was sent from senior BBC management in London to news chiefs at BBC East HQ in Norwich, to the effect that ‘the Green party were to be treated as the fourth party in the by-election coverage, and that UKIP was to be treated the same as the BNP’. Does (or did) such a memo exist, if so who originated this policy, who wrote it, to whom was it sent, who oversaw its compliance, and what do you intend to do about this gross breach of the BBC Charter? The bias we had seen in preceding days certainly seems to confirm its existence.
6)
In an web article entitled “Five key lessons from Norwich North” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8167588.stm), BBC Chief Political Correspondent James Landale writes:
“Third, the anti-politics, anti-politician, expenses-fuelled vote did not coalesce around any particular party or candidate. The Greens, UKIP and the former diplomat Craig Murray picked up some expenses-driven protest votes but not enough to matter.”
Really? At 4,068 votes, this was UKIP’s strongest ever showing in a parliamentary election (which barely did credit to an excellent candidate), but less than 800 votes behind the Liberal Democrats. With fair media coverage, who knows what could have been achieved? The BBC’s much-touted and fancied Green Party came fifth. James Landale appears to reflect – accurately – the BBC view of the British political spectrum.
Bias
For the purpose of brevity, I’ve avoided traversing the minefield that is BBC radio “comedy”. It is an odd experience to hear an audience laughing when nothing funny had been said, but I am getting used to Marcus Brigstocke (and the 6:30pm Radio 4 slot) by now. I doubt I’ll ever get used to Sue Perkins who recently said: “UKIP. Tossers!” bizarrely out of context in a programme as unmemorable as it was un-entertaining.
In an article written for the Daily Telegraph on 24th July entitled “Anti-UKIP and pro-Green: the BBC at its most blatantly biased”, Daniel Hannan, a Conservative MEP wrote:
Throughout the campaign, it ran programmes with Conservative, Labour, LibDem and Green spokesmen…. But there was no basis to the claim that they were the fourth party, either nationally or locally. The last test of electoral feeling was June’s European election. The United Kingdom Independence Party won 13 seats and came second; the Greens won two seats and came fifth. In local elections on the same day, UKIP beat the Greens in most Norwich North wards.
He continued:
Newsnight, Look East and Radio 4 all chose to disregard UKIP and treat the Greens as the main story. Three days before the poll, the BBC’s Eastern region TV held a hustings meeting for four candidates: Conservative, Labour, LibDem and Green.
What was the result in the event? UKIP won 11.8 per cent of the vote ‐ comfortably ahead of the Greens and remarkably close to the LibDems (or “worryingly close” as I just heard a Radio 5 Live presenter put it).
One of the responses to Mr. Hannan’s blog (by ‘Patrick’) was this: On the Saturday before the Euro elections, Today ran a five minute attack on UKIP written by Mark Mardell, the BBC Europe editor. It was a total hatchet job with Mardell first telling us what the other parties in Brussels thought of UKIP (they did not like it) and then giving us his own opinion ‐ that UKIP were profoundly unserious golf club militants who had not been made prefects when they were at school.
I am not really a UKIP supporter, since I am rather to their left (although I did vote for them in protest after hearing that), but I made a formal complaint which was just brushed off.
The BBC’s Europe Editor should not tell us his negative opinions of any party in the days before an election ‐ so I am very pleased that Daniel Hannan as a conservative is making this post. A complaint from him to the BBC Trust, about the treatment of a party which he opposes, would carry a lot of weight. The BBC can just ignore the ordinary licence payer.
Like many people in UKIP, I constantly wonder if the soft loans from the EIB have had an effect on output. Although the BBC refuted the suggestion that there would be any effect on the editorial process at the time, one of the conditions of EIB loans is that the aims of the E.U. are promoted and furthered. I, for one, am bewildered as to why an organisation such as the BBC that raises £3.36 billion annually, with almost guaranteed supra-inflationary increases by state-mandated taxation, needs to borrow £141 million from such a source that places its editorial integrity under question. Looking at the quality of BBC output, I am mystified as to where it is spent.
Or is the BBC simply taking orders from 10, Downing Street? To expose the European Union for the fraudulent, inept, overweening, corrupt and devious mess that we think it is might set the British people to question why we are a member of such an organisation, its second largest funder, and cause people to actually question what has been done in their name and with their money but without their electoral mandate.
Conclusion
I turn to the Bridcut Report, “From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel”. It contains Twelve Guiding Principles to ensure impartiality, which I have reproduced in Appendix A. The BBC Trust webpage states the following:
The report is the result of a project first commissioned by the BBC Board of Governors in conjunction with BBC management in November 2005 to identify the challenges and risks to impartiality. The report has been fully endorsed by the BBC Trust, the BBC Executive Board and the BBC Journalism Board.
Endorsed it may have been, although this carries little significant meaning. It is a great shame that it was not ‘embraced’, or even adopted.
As much to blame for this situation are spineless and devious politicians. BBC funding appears to be a ‘third rail’ in British politics – ‘touch it and you die’, but this should not prevent the issue from being addressed. An iniquitous system such as the licence tax cannot be maintained, and this has been stated by commissioned reports, astute and intelligent individuals, and even James Murdoch at the recent McTaggart Lecture in the Edinburgh Television Festival.
Now that I have fully realised that I cannot trust BBC output on news and political coverage, I am reduced to watching one hour of television per week. It is a BBC programme - Dragon’s Den – a fascinating programme which is available on BBC iPlayer, obviating the need for a television. My views, in common with millions of people in this country, are not represented, so why should I pay the BBC licence tax? A programme that I always thought I would like to see made would be a ‘PPC’s only’ version of BBC1’s Question Time for the four main parties, with each party HQ providing a parliamentary candidate of their choice, just before the general election. Given the way the BBC currently reports politics, with its policy of deliberate exclusion of UKIP I do not see this happening.
I intend to use every technological means to achieve the objective I have stated. I will change my mind and resume payment when I detect a sea-change in attitudes towards political coverage on the BBC and it becomes fair and balanced in proportion to a range of electoral results and more representative of reasoned public opinion. In the meantime, I believe a full, independent public enquiry should be launched into the BBC coverage on TV and radio of both election periods, to investigate my charge in point 5) in Grievance above; hence the distribution list below.
I personally believe that British politics is changing profoundly. The effects of the internet, blogging, scandals, and a detachment of the political and media classes from the mood and opinions of the public are coming to a head. Between the general elections of 2001 and 2005, the Labour Party lost 64% of its membership. The number of new members joining UKIP increased our total membership by13% ….between April and July this year.
Yours sincerely,
Steven W. Morson
Prospective parliamentary candidate
UKIP – Bromsgrove.
Appendix A
The Twelve Guiding Principles of the Bridcut report.
1. Impartiality is and should remain the hallmark of the BBC as the leading provider of information and entertainment in the United Kingdom, and as a pre-eminent broadcaster internationally. It is a legal requirement, but it should also be a source of pride.
2. Impartiality is an essential part of the BBC's contract with its audience, which owns and funds the BBC. Because of that, the audience itself will often be a factor in determining impartiality.
3. Impartiality must continue to be applied to matters of party political or industrial controversy. But in today's more diverse political, social and cultural landscape, it requires a wider and deeper application.
4. Impartiality involves breadth of view, and can be breached by omission. It is not necessarily to be found on the centre ground.
5. Impartiality is no excuse for insipid programming. It allows room for fair-minded, evidence-based judgments by senior journalists and documentary makers, and for controversial, passionate and polemical arguments by contributors and writers.
6. Impartiality applies across all BBC platforms and all types of programme. No genre is exempt. But the way it is applied and assessed will vary in different genres.
7. Impartiality is most obviously at risk in areas of sharp public controversy. But there is a less visible risk, demanding particular vigilance, when programmes purport to reflect a consensus for "the common good", or become involved with campaigns.
8. Impartiality is often not easy. There is no template of wisdom which will eliminate fierce internal debate over difficult dilemmas. But the BBC's journalistic expertise is an invaluable resource for all departments to draw on.
9. Impartiality can often be affected by the stance and experience of programme makers, who need constantly to examine and challenge their own assumptions.
10. Impartiality requires the BBC to examine its own institutional values, and to assess the effect they have on its audiences.
11. Impartiality is a process, about which the BBC should be honest and transparent with its audience: this should permit greater boldness in its programming decisions. But impartiality can never be fully achieved to everyone's satisfaction: the BBC should not be defensive about this but ready to acknowledge and correct significant breaches as and when they occur.
12. Impartiality is required of everyone involved in output. It applies as much to the most junior researcher as it does to the director general. But editors and executive producers must give a strong lead to their teams. They must ensure that the impartiality process begins at the conception of a programme and lasts throughout production: if left until the approval stage, it is usually too late.
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Sunday, 6 September 2009
SANTA GETS A GIFT
* 
Paddy O'Connell on Broadcasting House featured a discussion between Labour's former health secretary Frank 'Santa's Evil Twin' Dobson (pictured right) and the Conservative MEP Roger Helmer (pictured left) about the NHS. (Tip to Conservative MEPs: If you want to raise your public profile get yourself told off by the Conservative front bench. The Beeb will be on the phone! This was Roger Helmer's second interview on one of Radio 4's major programmes in as many weeks.)
*
Frank Dobson was not interrupted but Mr Helmer was interrupted 3 times, earning O'Connell I.C.s of 0 for Dobson and 1 for Helmer.
O'Connell mainly questioned Dobson about an anecdote concerning a woman who used a mobile phone in a hospital when she shouldn't have done, whereas with Mr Helmer he stuck to asking about the Conservative Party's attitude towards the NHS (and the debate about the NHS). These contrasting lines of questioning (one soft, one tough) suggest bias. However, the clearest sign of bias came when O'Connell switched tack with Claus at one point and asked him a gift of a question, "Does that tell you, Frank Dobson, what the Conservatives might do with the NHS?" That's not the sort of question an interviewer should put to a Labour spokesman, especially if he doesn't return the favour to the Conservative spokesman - and he didn't return the favour! The question also slanted the discussion still further away from the Labour Party's policies on the NHS.
*
Frank Dobson was not interrupted but Mr Helmer was interrupted 3 times, earning O'Connell I.C.s of 0 for Dobson and 1 for Helmer.
O'Connell mainly questioned Dobson about an anecdote concerning a woman who used a mobile phone in a hospital when she shouldn't have done, whereas with Mr Helmer he stuck to asking about the Conservative Party's attitude towards the NHS (and the debate about the NHS). These contrasting lines of questioning (one soft, one tough) suggest bias. However, the clearest sign of bias came when O'Connell switched tack with Claus at one point and asked him a gift of a question, "Does that tell you, Frank Dobson, what the Conservatives might do with the NHS?" That's not the sort of question an interviewer should put to a Labour spokesman, especially if he doesn't return the favour to the Conservative spokesman - and he didn't return the favour! The question also slanted the discussion still further away from the Labour Party's policies on the NHS.
HAS ANDY COME BACK A CHANGED MAN?
Andrew Marr was back this morning. His holiday seems to have done him good. Has he come back a better and less-biased interviewer? We can hope!!
*
An interview with Nigel Farage that contained no interruptions (I.C. of 0) was followed by an interview with George Osborne that contained a mere ten interruptions (I.C. of 0.8). Compare this interview with Marr's interview with Mr Osborne from 19th July, as reviewed by yours truly:
http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/2009/07/students-of-media-studies-should-be.html
For a conservative take on what George Osborne had to say today, see Guido Fawkes:
http://order-order.com/2009/09/06/osbornes-command-economics/
*
An interview with Nigel Farage that contained no interruptions (I.C. of 0) was followed by an interview with George Osborne that contained a mere ten interruptions (I.C. of 0.8). Compare this interview with Marr's interview with Mr Osborne from 19th July, as reviewed by yours truly:
http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/2009/07/students-of-media-studies-should-be.html
For a conservative take on what George Osborne had to say today, see Guido Fawkes:
http://order-order.com/2009/09/06/osbornes-command-economics/
SNIGGERING AT NIGEL FARAGE?
*
Nigel Farage got longer to speak on Friday's Today - over five minutes in fact. Interviewed by Sarah Montague, he was only interrupted 3 times (I.C. of 0.7).
Questions of bias arise, however, because of Sarah Montague's bizarre sniggering.
I'll transcribe what Nigel was saying & place his interviewer's sniggers in context. Give it a listen (via the link provided) and see what you think.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8237000/8237283.stm
"As UKIP's grown, it's really become just too difficult, the party's now become too big (snigger) to do two jobs." (0.53 into the Today clip)
"Let's use the election in Buckingham to have a proper national debate about how (snigger) we're governed." (2.26 into the Today clip)
"I will be the parliamentary leader. I intend and (snigger) want to stay on as spokesman."
(5.13 into the Today clip)
*
Shortly after this final snigger, Sarah interrupted with "You're not standing down as anything!" and burst out laughing.
*
By contrast, though a shorter interviewer (lasting only 2 mins 51), Sarah Montague's interview with Green leader Caroline Lucas contained no interruptions and no sniggering.
Nigel Farage got longer to speak on Friday's Today - over five minutes in fact. Interviewed by Sarah Montague, he was only interrupted 3 times (I.C. of 0.7).
Questions of bias arise, however, because of Sarah Montague's bizarre sniggering.
I'll transcribe what Nigel was saying & place his interviewer's sniggers in context. Give it a listen (via the link provided) and see what you think.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8237000/8237283.stm
"As UKIP's grown, it's really become just too difficult, the party's now become too big (snigger) to do two jobs." (0.53 into the Today clip)
"Let's use the election in Buckingham to have a proper national debate about how (snigger) we're governed." (2.26 into the Today clip)
"I will be the parliamentary leader. I intend and (snigger) want to stay on as spokesman."
(5.13 into the Today clip)
*
Shortly after this final snigger, Sarah interrupted with "You're not standing down as anything!" and burst out laughing.
*
**********************
*By contrast, though a shorter interviewer (lasting only 2 mins 51), Sarah Montague's interview with Green leader Caroline Lucas contained no interruptions and no sniggering.
Saturday, 5 September 2009
BLINK AND YOU'LL MISS HIM!
**
Kirsty Wark's interview with Nigel Farage, following Crick's report, lasted all of 1 minute 34 seconds. Astonishing! With so much to ask Mr Farage about, especially his decision to stand down as leader of UKIP in the UK (which was not asked about), and with his party holding it's annual conference, you would have expected (and been right to expect) a longer interview.
Now, despite giving him only 1 minute 34 seconds of her precious time, Kirsty still went on to interrupt Nigel Farage! Her I.C. was 0.7.
Her questions were hostile in tone:
"Why not make this a fair fight if you want to be taken seriously for Westminster and go into a constituency where candidates actually campaign?"
"So basically it's a publicity stunt, as you've said." (As NF pointed out, he'd said no such thing.)
"Oh, but, but, if you look what UKIP did... 2 1/2% of the electorate supported UKIP last time round. You're never going to make a mark on that seat!"
Kirsty's "Thank you very much" at the end was abrupt and stern in tone. Her face was like thunder. Please watch it on the Newsnight website & you'll see what I mean!
*
P.S. As she also mentioned that Newsnight had tried to get John Bercow himself on (but that he wasn't available), I have a strong suspicion that Nigel Farage would not have received an invitation to appear at all had Bercow been prepared to appear.
**
***********************
*
Sadly not having the time to cover the BBC website as well (as I work full-time) I'm making a rare comment about it here. The Beeb's very young political correspondent Ross Hawkins reports on Nigel Farage's decision to step down as UKIP's domestic leader here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8237728.stm
It's a good piece, not at all hostile to UKIP. I enjoyed reading it. Well done, young man!
*
My congratulations most definitely don't extend to the piece's sub-headings (which would not be Ross's doing). These are ''Wild men'' and 'Tough'. Who the hell wrote these sub-headings? Why pick on two negatives? They are hardly representative of the piece itself. And why pick on two such irrelevant sub-headings? Truly bizarre - and another sign of the BBC's bias against the Right. Poor show, mystery sub-editor!
Kirsty Wark's interview with Nigel Farage, following Crick's report, lasted all of 1 minute 34 seconds. Astonishing! With so much to ask Mr Farage about, especially his decision to stand down as leader of UKIP in the UK (which was not asked about), and with his party holding it's annual conference, you would have expected (and been right to expect) a longer interview.
Now, despite giving him only 1 minute 34 seconds of her precious time, Kirsty still went on to interrupt Nigel Farage! Her I.C. was 0.7.
Her questions were hostile in tone:
"Why not make this a fair fight if you want to be taken seriously for Westminster and go into a constituency where candidates actually campaign?"
"So basically it's a publicity stunt, as you've said." (As NF pointed out, he'd said no such thing.)
"Oh, but, but, if you look what UKIP did... 2 1/2% of the electorate supported UKIP last time round. You're never going to make a mark on that seat!"
Kirsty's "Thank you very much" at the end was abrupt and stern in tone. Her face was like thunder. Please watch it on the Newsnight website & you'll see what I mean!
*
P.S. As she also mentioned that Newsnight had tried to get John Bercow himself on (but that he wasn't available), I have a strong suspicion that Nigel Farage would not have received an invitation to appear at all had Bercow been prepared to appear.
**
***********************
*
Sadly not having the time to cover the BBC website as well (as I work full-time) I'm making a rare comment about it here. The Beeb's very young political correspondent Ross Hawkins reports on Nigel Farage's decision to step down as UKIP's domestic leader here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8237728.stm
It's a good piece, not at all hostile to UKIP. I enjoyed reading it. Well done, young man!
*
My congratulations most definitely don't extend to the piece's sub-headings (which would not be Ross's doing). These are ''Wild men'' and 'Tough'. Who the hell wrote these sub-headings? Why pick on two negatives? They are hardly representative of the piece itself. And why pick on two such irrelevant sub-headings? Truly bizarre - and another sign of the BBC's bias against the Right. Poor show, mystery sub-editor!
CRICK AND GROUNDHOG DAY
*
It's groundhog day again. Michael Crick's latest report on Newsnight (his last one being about Boris and the Tories) was about...yes, of course...the Tories. (The man's obsession with them just goes on and on and on..., as all true obsessions should!)
*
It was also, ostensibly, about UKIP - being provoked by Nigel Farage's (excellent) decision to stand against Labour-friendly, expense-grabbing Speaker John Bercow in the forthcoming general election. I say 'ostensibly' because UKIP spokesmen were thin on the ground in Crick's report, with only 19 seconds going to a local party activist, Brian Adams.
The main purpose of Crick's report was to highlight more problems for David Cameron and his party. The understandable desire of many Conservatives, including party activists in Buckingham, to vote for the truly conservative Mr Farage rather than for the no-longer-conservative-at all Mr Bercow is causing confusion (if Crick is to be believed) in the party. How should active Conservatives handle it? Back Bercow? Back an anti-Bercow official Conservative? Or vote for Nigel Farage?
The secondary purpose of Crick's report was to heap praise on the Left's favourite Bercow. "Some UKIP activists concede John Bercow has been a good local MP", he said. More praise for his constituency work followed from various talking heads. The Daily Telegraph's revelations about Speaker Bercow were not mentioned.
I also look for the word 'independent' in any description of a 'talking head' in a report, as the word gives the speaker an authority that may or may not be deserved - and that's a sign of bias, in that either the person is likely to be one of whom the reporter approves or is expressing opinions of which the reporter approves. So my ears pricked up when I heard this from Crick: "But the vice-chancellor of the independent Buckingham University believes Farage would be bad news for the seat." The word 'independent' is strange in this context anyhow. Why call a university 'independent'? Surely only for the purposes of bias, outlined above? Indeed, why include this man at all?
*
If I ask again why Crick keeps on reporting on the main opposition party rather than on the government of this country, I too will be giving you a groundhog day experience! So I won't.
The Crick Count
Conservative - 6
Tory - 6
It's groundhog day again. Michael Crick's latest report on Newsnight (his last one being about Boris and the Tories) was about...yes, of course...the Tories. (The man's obsession with them just goes on and on and on..., as all true obsessions should!)
*
It was also, ostensibly, about UKIP - being provoked by Nigel Farage's (excellent) decision to stand against Labour-friendly, expense-grabbing Speaker John Bercow in the forthcoming general election. I say 'ostensibly' because UKIP spokesmen were thin on the ground in Crick's report, with only 19 seconds going to a local party activist, Brian Adams.
The main purpose of Crick's report was to highlight more problems for David Cameron and his party. The understandable desire of many Conservatives, including party activists in Buckingham, to vote for the truly conservative Mr Farage rather than for the no-longer-conservative-at all Mr Bercow is causing confusion (if Crick is to be believed) in the party. How should active Conservatives handle it? Back Bercow? Back an anti-Bercow official Conservative? Or vote for Nigel Farage?
The secondary purpose of Crick's report was to heap praise on the Left's favourite Bercow. "Some UKIP activists concede John Bercow has been a good local MP", he said. More praise for his constituency work followed from various talking heads. The Daily Telegraph's revelations about Speaker Bercow were not mentioned.
I also look for the word 'independent' in any description of a 'talking head' in a report, as the word gives the speaker an authority that may or may not be deserved - and that's a sign of bias, in that either the person is likely to be one of whom the reporter approves or is expressing opinions of which the reporter approves. So my ears pricked up when I heard this from Crick: "But the vice-chancellor of the independent Buckingham University believes Farage would be bad news for the seat." The word 'independent' is strange in this context anyhow. Why call a university 'independent'? Surely only for the purposes of bias, outlined above? Indeed, why include this man at all?
*
If I ask again why Crick keeps on reporting on the main opposition party rather than on the government of this country, I too will be giving you a groundhog day experience! So I won't.
The Crick Count
Conservative - 6
Tory - 6
BEEB'S MOST BIASED - The Awards Ceremony
*
Beeb Bias Craig would like to congratulate James Naughtie on winning the prestigious 'Beeb's Most Biased' Award for August 2009. His continued sterling efforts to promote the Left at the expense of the Right cannot but go unrecognised.
Can he hold on to his crown in September? Well, he's already got off to a flying start...
JIM NAUGHTIE
*
BIASED...
*
AND NOT AFRAID TO SHOW IT!
AUGUST'S I.C.s - JIM NAUGHTIE
*
No prizes for guessing who was the worst offender - by some way - in August! Yes, the coveted award for the title of 'Beeb's Most Biased' goes to....(drum roll)...Jim Naughtie.
Here are his I.C.s for August:
6/8 Grant Shapps, Conservative - 1.2
11/8 George Osborne, Conservative - 1.2
12/8 Ed Vaizey, Conservative - 0.9
31/8 Nicola Sturgeon, SNP - 0.4
8/8 John McFall, Labour - 0.3
5/8 Tim Yeo, Conservative - 0
11/8 Andrew Dismore, Labour - 0
13/8 Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem - 0
11/8 Ivan Lewis, Labour - 0
10/8 Kim Howell, Labour - 0
6/8 Quentin Davies, Labour- 0
The averages here are:
Conservatives - 0.8
SNP - 0.3
Labour - 0.1
Lib Dems - 0
The Conservative average would have been higher were it not for Tim Yeo, that most left-wing of Tories advocating action on AGW, bringing out Naughtie's kind-to-a-Tory side for once. Just to remind you, July's figures were 1.4 for the Conservatives, 0.5 for Labour and 0 for the Lib Dems. June's were 1 for the Conservatives and 0 for Labour!!
Bias, month in month out from Naughtie.
No prizes for guessing who was the worst offender - by some way - in August! Yes, the coveted award for the title of 'Beeb's Most Biased' goes to....(drum roll)...Jim Naughtie.
Here are his I.C.s for August:
6/8 Grant Shapps, Conservative - 1.2
11/8 George Osborne, Conservative - 1.2
12/8 Ed Vaizey, Conservative - 0.9
31/8 Nicola Sturgeon, SNP - 0.4
8/8 John McFall, Labour - 0.3
5/8 Tim Yeo, Conservative - 0
11/8 Andrew Dismore, Labour - 0
13/8 Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem - 0
11/8 Ivan Lewis, Labour - 0
10/8 Kim Howell, Labour - 0
6/8 Quentin Davies, Labour- 0
The averages here are:
Conservatives - 0.8
SNP - 0.3
Labour - 0.1
Lib Dems - 0
The Conservative average would have been higher were it not for Tim Yeo, that most left-wing of Tories advocating action on AGW, bringing out Naughtie's kind-to-a-Tory side for once. Just to remind you, July's figures were 1.4 for the Conservatives, 0.5 for Labour and 0 for the Lib Dems. June's were 1 for the Conservatives and 0 for Labour!!
Bias, month in month out from Naughtie.
AUGUST'S I.C.s - GAVIN ESLER
*
Gavin Esler has been fairly quiet too. Here he comes:
20/8 Kenny MacAskill, SNP - 1.6
13/8 Ann Keen, Labour - 1.3
14/8 Andrew Lansley, Conservative - 0.8
21/8 Iain Gray, Labour - 0.6
21/8 George Kerevan, SNP - 0.5
7/8 Gisella Stuart, Labour - 0.4
14/8 Andy Burnham, Labour - 0
His averages are what you would expect from Esler:
******SNP - 1.1
******Conservatives - 0.8
******Labour - 0.6
Gavin Esler has been fairly quiet too. Here he comes:
20/8 Kenny MacAskill, SNP - 1.6
13/8 Ann Keen, Labour - 1.3
14/8 Andrew Lansley, Conservative - 0.8
21/8 Iain Gray, Labour - 0.6
21/8 George Kerevan, SNP - 0.5
7/8 Gisella Stuart, Labour - 0.4
14/8 Andy Burnham, Labour - 0
His averages are what you would expect from Esler:
******SNP - 1.1
******Conservatives - 0.8
******Labour - 0.6
AUGUST'S I.C.s - JOHN HUMPHRYS
&
John Humphrys has been another of the BBC's absentee interviewers for most of August, so not much to go on here either. Still....
21/08 Alex Salmond, SNP - 1
21/08 David Miliband, Labour - 0.9
22/08 David Lidington, Conservative - 0.9
20/08 Lord Baker, Conservative - 0.9
20/08 Sir Patrick Cormack, Conservative - 0.2
22/08 Ed Davey, Lib Dem - 0
Averages of:
SNP - 1
Labour - 0.9
Conservatives - 0.7
Lib Dems - 0
John Humphrys has been another of the BBC's absentee interviewers for most of August, so not much to go on here either. Still....
21/08 Alex Salmond, SNP - 1
21/08 David Miliband, Labour - 0.9
22/08 David Lidington, Conservative - 0.9
20/08 Lord Baker, Conservative - 0.9
20/08 Sir Patrick Cormack, Conservative - 0.2
22/08 Ed Davey, Lib Dem - 0
Averages of:
SNP - 1
Labour - 0.9
Conservatives - 0.7
Lib Dems - 0
AUGUST'S I.C.s - SARAH MONTAGUE
*
The much-loved Today presenter Sarah Montague was off for most of August. Here's all that she got up to:
4/8 Ivan Lewis, Labour - 1
3/8 Phil Woolas, Labour - 0.6
4/8 Andrew Dismore, Labour - 0
3/8 Phil Willis, Lib Dem - 0
This gives her an average I.C. of 0.5 for Labour.
The much-loved Today presenter Sarah Montague was off for most of August. Here's all that she got up to:
4/8 Ivan Lewis, Labour - 1
3/8 Phil Woolas, Labour - 0.6
4/8 Andrew Dismore, Labour - 0
3/8 Phil Willis, Lib Dem - 0
This gives her an average I.C. of 0.5 for Labour.
AUGUST'S I.C.s - RITULA SHAH
*
Ritula Shah of The World Tonight didn't do too many domestic interviews in August, but here's what she did.
29/8 Gerald Howarth, Conservative - 0.8
22/8 Mike Gapes, Labour - 0.5
5/8 Malcolm Wicks, Labour - 0.3
19/8 Stephen Williams, Lib Dem - 0
17/8 Gisella Stuart, Labour - 0
27/8 Lord Ashdown, Lib Dem - 0
10/8 Ann Widdecombe, Conservative - 0
Her averages are:
Conservative - 0.4
Labour - 0.3
Lib Dems - 0
Ritula Shah of The World Tonight didn't do too many domestic interviews in August, but here's what she did.
29/8 Gerald Howarth, Conservative - 0.8
22/8 Mike Gapes, Labour - 0.5
5/8 Malcolm Wicks, Labour - 0.3
19/8 Stephen Williams, Lib Dem - 0
17/8 Gisella Stuart, Labour - 0
27/8 Lord Ashdown, Lib Dem - 0
10/8 Ann Widdecombe, Conservative - 0
Her averages are:
Conservative - 0.4
Labour - 0.3
Lib Dems - 0
AUGUST'S I.C.s - KIRSTY WARK
*
Kirsty Wark had quite a busy August. Her figures for the month are agreeably unexpected.
25/8 Tessa Jowell, Labour - 1.7
17/8 Vince Cable, Lib Dem - 1.6
10/8 Hilary Benn, Labour - 1.2
12/8 Angela Eagle, Labour - 0.9
11/8 Ivan Lewis, Labour - 0.8
19/8 Douglas Alexander, Labour - 0.7
12/8 John Redwood, Conservative - 0.6
3/8 Vince Cable, Lib Dem - 0.5
3/8 John McFall, Labour - 0.4
5/8 Christine Graham, SNP - 0.4
10/8 Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem - 0.3
24/8 Alex Salmond, SNP - 0.2
26/8 Douglas Alexander, Labour - 0.2
4/8 Philip Hammond, Conservative - 0
12/8 Vince Cable, Lib Dem - 0
Average number of interruptions per political party:
********Labour - 0.8
********Lib Dems - 0.6
********Conservatives - 0.3
********SNP - 0.3
Who would have expected that? The SNP on 0.3, Kirsty's friends in Labour 0.8!! Credit where credit is due, well done Kirsty and keep it up!
Kirsty Wark had quite a busy August. Her figures for the month are agreeably unexpected.
25/8 Tessa Jowell, Labour - 1.7
17/8 Vince Cable, Lib Dem - 1.6
10/8 Hilary Benn, Labour - 1.2
12/8 Angela Eagle, Labour - 0.9
11/8 Ivan Lewis, Labour - 0.8
19/8 Douglas Alexander, Labour - 0.7
12/8 John Redwood, Conservative - 0.6
3/8 Vince Cable, Lib Dem - 0.5
3/8 John McFall, Labour - 0.4
5/8 Christine Graham, SNP - 0.4
10/8 Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem - 0.3
24/8 Alex Salmond, SNP - 0.2
26/8 Douglas Alexander, Labour - 0.2
4/8 Philip Hammond, Conservative - 0
12/8 Vince Cable, Lib Dem - 0
Average number of interruptions per political party:
********Labour - 0.8
********Lib Dems - 0.6
********Conservatives - 0.3
********SNP - 0.3
Who would have expected that? The SNP on 0.3, Kirsty's friends in Labour 0.8!! Credit where credit is due, well done Kirsty and keep it up!
AUGUST'S I.C.s - MARTHA KEARNEY
*
Martha Kearney, the work-house of The World at One, conducted a decent number of interviews in August. Here are her I.C.s:
13/8 Daniel Kawczynski, Conservative - 1.4
27/8 Nick Gibb, Conservative - 1
27/8 Vernon Coaker, Labour - 0.9
24/8 Nick Clegg, Lib Dem - 0.9
18/8 Alistair Darling, Labour - 0.9
9/8 Douglas Alexander, Labour - 0.9
11/8 Lord Mandelson, Labour - 0.7
17/8 Richard Baker, Labour - 0.6
19/8 Christine Graham, SNP - 0.2
11/8 Peter Luff, Conservative - 0
13/8 Christine Graham, SNP - 0
18/8 Paul Holmes, Lib Dem - 0
27/8 Boris Johnson, Conservative - 0
13/8 Sir Patrick Cormack, Conservative - 0
The toughest and the easiest rides were for Conservatives, thus giving this surprising result:
Average number of interruptions per political party:
********Labour - 0.7
********Conservative - 0.5
********Lib Dem - 0.5
Martha Kearney, the work-house of The World at One, conducted a decent number of interviews in August. Here are her I.C.s:
13/8 Daniel Kawczynski, Conservative - 1.4
27/8 Nick Gibb, Conservative - 1
27/8 Vernon Coaker, Labour - 0.9
24/8 Nick Clegg, Lib Dem - 0.9
18/8 Alistair Darling, Labour - 0.9
9/8 Douglas Alexander, Labour - 0.9
11/8 Lord Mandelson, Labour - 0.7
17/8 Richard Baker, Labour - 0.6
19/8 Christine Graham, SNP - 0.2
11/8 Peter Luff, Conservative - 0
13/8 Christine Graham, SNP - 0
18/8 Paul Holmes, Lib Dem - 0
27/8 Boris Johnson, Conservative - 0
13/8 Sir Patrick Cormack, Conservative - 0
The toughest and the easiest rides were for Conservatives, thus giving this surprising result:
Average number of interruptions per political party:
********Labour - 0.7
********Conservative - 0.5
********Lib Dem - 0.5
AUGUST'S I.C.s - JUSTIN WEBB
*
The BBC's legendary ex-North America editor, Justin Webb (last seen simpering in front of Barack Obama), joined Today at the end of August. Welcome Justin! (You better be more balanced now you're back in Blighty, or else.)
There's only one interview to record:
28/8 Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Conservative - 0.6
The BBC's legendary ex-North America editor, Justin Webb (last seen simpering in front of Barack Obama), joined Today at the end of August. Welcome Justin! (You better be more balanced now you're back in Blighty, or else.)
There's only one interview to record:
28/8 Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Conservative - 0.6
AUGUST'S I.C. - ROBIN LUSTIG
*
Here's one I'm sure you've been waiting for with baited breath: Robin (zzzzzzz) Lustig.
12/8 Ieuan Wyn Jones, Plaid Cymru - 0
12/8 David Drew, Labour - 0
21/8 Richard Baker, Labour - 0
21/8 Ivan Lewis, Labour - 0
13/8 Sir Ming Campbell, Lib Dem - 0
Free rides all round, though (due to the low questions ratio) Sir Ming's was again the freeest ride of all. (Is it part of some hidden BBC code that Sir Ming Campbell musn't be interrupted by interviewers?)
Here's one I'm sure you've been waiting for with baited breath: Robin (zzzzzzz) Lustig.
12/8 Ieuan Wyn Jones, Plaid Cymru - 0
12/8 David Drew, Labour - 0
21/8 Richard Baker, Labour - 0
21/8 Ivan Lewis, Labour - 0
13/8 Sir Ming Campbell, Lib Dem - 0
Free rides all round, though (due to the low questions ratio) Sir Ming's was again the freeest ride of all. (Is it part of some hidden BBC code that Sir Ming Campbell musn't be interrupted by interviewers?)
AUGUST'S I.C.s - ODDS AND SODS
*
This post will round up all the miscellaneous interviewers - the stand-ins, the rare butterflies, the reporters - who got a bite of the interviewing cherry last month.
JAMES LANDALE
Eddie Mair's large shoes were filled on 14th August by political correspondent James Landale.
Roger Helmer, Conservative - 0
Chris Bryant, Labour - 0
Lord West, GOAT - 0
The phrase 'nothing to see here' springs to mind.
STEPHEN EVANS
Broadcasting House only swam into my ken because of the absence of the Marr Show, but it will be staying in focus from now on. The only interviews caught in August were as follows:
30/8 Alex Salmond, SNP - 0.8
23/8 Alex Salmond, SNP - 0.6
Both were tough interviews (despite the lowish I.C.s).
ROBERT PESTON
Robeert Pestooooooon's one fuuuull interview toooooook place on Todaaaaaay on 1st August.
Lord Myners, Labour - 0
QUENTIN SOMMERVILLE
The BBC's China correspondent got to interview Tony Blair (remember him?) over China's use of 'green technology' (Today, 21st August).
Tony Blair, Labour - 0
A gentle affair it was too.
Best of all, of course, was:
LAURA KUENSSBERG
16/8 Janet Anderson, Labour - 0.5
16/8 Ed Vaizey, Conservative - 0.2
16/8 Evan Harris, Lib Dem - 0.2
23/8 Pete Wishart, SNP - 0
23/8 Tom Harris, Labour - 0
23/8 David Mundell, Conservative - 0
Her exemplary performances have been lauded already.
This post will round up all the miscellaneous interviewers - the stand-ins, the rare butterflies, the reporters - who got a bite of the interviewing cherry last month.
JAMES LANDALE
Eddie Mair's large shoes were filled on 14th August by political correspondent James Landale.
Roger Helmer, Conservative - 0
Chris Bryant, Labour - 0
Lord West, GOAT - 0
The phrase 'nothing to see here' springs to mind.
STEPHEN EVANS
Broadcasting House only swam into my ken because of the absence of the Marr Show, but it will be staying in focus from now on. The only interviews caught in August were as follows:
30/8 Alex Salmond, SNP - 0.8
23/8 Alex Salmond, SNP - 0.6
Both were tough interviews (despite the lowish I.C.s).
ROBERT PESTON
Robeert Pestooooooon's one fuuuull interview toooooook place on Todaaaaaay on 1st August.
Lord Myners, Labour - 0
QUENTIN SOMMERVILLE
The BBC's China correspondent got to interview Tony Blair (remember him?) over China's use of 'green technology' (Today, 21st August).
Tony Blair, Labour - 0
A gentle affair it was too.
Best of all, of course, was:
LAURA KUENSSBERG
16/8 Janet Anderson, Labour - 0.5
16/8 Ed Vaizey, Conservative - 0.2
16/8 Evan Harris, Lib Dem - 0.2
23/8 Pete Wishart, SNP - 0
23/8 Tom Harris, Labour - 0
23/8 David Mundell, Conservative - 0
Her exemplary performances have been lauded already.
AUGUST'S I.C.s - EVAN DAVIS
Unlike in July, Evan Davis spent most of August in the company of Labour or Lib Dem politicians:
20/8 Alistair Darling, Labour - 1
20/8 David Lammy, Labour - 0.8
12/8 Peter Mandelson, Labour - 0.8
17/8 Lord Adonis, Labour - 0.7
19/8 Roger Berry, Labour - 0.6
17/8 Murad Qureshi, Labour - 0.5
25/8 Denis MacShane, Labour - 0.5
12/8 Lord Layard, Labour - 0.4
25/8 John Redwood, Conservative - 0.3
17/8 Bob Ainsworth, Labour - 0.3
14/8 Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour - 0.2
13/8 Alan Beith, Lib Dem - 0
15/8 Denis MacShane, Labour - 0
14/8 Vince Cable, Lib Dem - 0
24/8 Louise Ellman, Labour - 0
24/8 Lord Steel, Lib Dem - 0
4/8 Vince Cable, Lib Dem - 0
26/8 John Prescott, Labour - 0
Average number of interruptions per political party
********************Labour - 0.4
********************Conservative - 0.3
********************Lib Dem - 0
Evan Davis still needs watching to see where his trends are leading (though, like the previous month's results, I don't think that the Lib Dems need to be worried!!)
AUGUST'S I.C.s - SHAUN LEY(ED-BACK)
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I've presented quite a lot of evidence on this blog that Shaun Ley is biased towards the Left, but August's I.C. list reveals that bias taking a whole new turn (though that, of course, reflects much more the bias of the programme's editor rather than that of Ley himself) . Of the 12 interviews featured, 11 were with Labour spokesmen. The figures themselves, however, may only show that Shaun was in a very spaced-out mood last month.
28/8 Gisella Stuart, Labour - 0.7
21/8 Lord Trefgarne, Conservative - 0
21/8 Tam Dalyell, Labour - 0
4/8 Jim Cousins, Labour - 0
30/8 Alan Campbell, Labour - 0
6/8 Stephen Timms, Labour - 0
3/8 Ian Pearson, Labour - 0
5/8 Vera Baird, Labour - 0
2/8 Bill Rammell, Labour - 0
30/8 Jack Straw, Labour - 0
28/8 Frank Field, Labour - 0
4/8 Frank Field, Labour - 0
I've presented quite a lot of evidence on this blog that Shaun Ley is biased towards the Left, but August's I.C. list reveals that bias taking a whole new turn (though that, of course, reflects much more the bias of the programme's editor rather than that of Ley himself) . Of the 12 interviews featured, 11 were with Labour spokesmen. The figures themselves, however, may only show that Shaun was in a very spaced-out mood last month.
28/8 Gisella Stuart, Labour - 0.7
21/8 Lord Trefgarne, Conservative - 0
21/8 Tam Dalyell, Labour - 0
4/8 Jim Cousins, Labour - 0
30/8 Alan Campbell, Labour - 0
6/8 Stephen Timms, Labour - 0
3/8 Ian Pearson, Labour - 0
5/8 Vera Baird, Labour - 0
2/8 Bill Rammell, Labour - 0
30/8 Jack Straw, Labour - 0
28/8 Frank Field, Labour - 0
4/8 Frank Field, Labour - 0
Friday, 4 September 2009
AUGUST'S I.C.s - MARR'S STAND-INS
With Andrew Marr off our screens during August, he had three stand-ins: Huw Edwards, Stephanie Flanders and Sophie Raworth. How did they fare? Were they any less biased that old Marr?
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SOPHIE RAWORTH(pictured above with a pleased-looking Jeremy Bowen)
Sophie's appearance on 9th August contained two relevant interviews:
Andrew Lansley, Conservative - 1.2
Hilary Benn, Labour - 0.3
The Lansley interview was on health and public spending (and, of course, cuts), whereas Benn's was bout the 'food revolution'. The sharp disparity in I.C.s does her no credit.
STEPHANIE FLANDERS
Steph's appearance on 2nd August contained two relevant interviews:
Vince Cable, Lib Dem - 1
Harriet Harman, Labour - 0.7
Please click on the label for the fair Stephanie for my comments on her un-BBC-like interview with St. Vince. The interview with Hattie ranged widely, but was not so strenuous.
HUW EDWARDS
Huw's show was on 16th August and contained three relevant interviews:
Michael Gove, Conservative - 1.1
Bob Ainsworth, Labour - 0.9
Caroline Flint, Labour - 0.3
Hard to judge off just three interviews, but it doesn't surprise me that the Gove interview was the toughest.
CRICKWATCH CONTINUES, HOLIDAY OR NO HOLIDAY
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Last night's Newsnight led with the resignation of Labour PPS Eric Joyce over the government's policy on the war in Afghanistan and its treatment of the army. After a report by Matt Prodger, Jeremy Paxman briefly discussed the story (a Labour story!) with our old friend Michael Crick.
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Crick's pronouncements were not ones to take exception to, except for a couple of statements about Mr Joyce which could be interpreted as somewhat undermining the man's credibility (echoes of which would be heard in the statements of loyalists like John Spellar MP):
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"Well, Eric Joyce is not a big name. PPS is the lowest rank in the government. It's unpaid. Er, you know, most PPSs, most people would never know who they were at all."
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"Having said that, Mr Joyce has always been known as, er, a bit of an independent, rather eccentric figure I think."
Mmm...
Last night's Newsnight led with the resignation of Labour PPS Eric Joyce over the government's policy on the war in Afghanistan and its treatment of the army. After a report by Matt Prodger, Jeremy Paxman briefly discussed the story (a Labour story!) with our old friend Michael Crick.
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Crick's pronouncements were not ones to take exception to, except for a couple of statements about Mr Joyce which could be interpreted as somewhat undermining the man's credibility (echoes of which would be heard in the statements of loyalists like John Spellar MP):
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"Well, Eric Joyce is not a big name. PPS is the lowest rank in the government. It's unpaid. Er, you know, most PPSs, most people would never know who they were at all."
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"Having said that, Mr Joyce has always been known as, er, a bit of an independent, rather eccentric figure I think."
Mmm...
Thursday, 3 September 2009
LOW INTENSITY WARNING
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For the next three weeks this blog will operate a little like an energy-saving light bulb. As I'm on holiday and will be spending plenty of time with my family (unlike Alan Milburn), I won't be able to act like a blazing 100-W light bulb for much of September. I'll post when I can and - like any self-respecting monomaniac- I'll make sure that I listen to every interview going, so that all the month's I.C.s will be all accounted for! Crick will be doggedly followed too.
So that's why this blog will seem unusually quiet for a while!
For the next three weeks this blog will operate a little like an energy-saving light bulb. As I'm on holiday and will be spending plenty of time with my family (unlike Alan Milburn), I won't be able to act like a blazing 100-W light bulb for much of September. I'll post when I can and - like any self-respecting monomaniac- I'll make sure that I listen to every interview going, so that all the month's I.C.s will be all accounted for! Crick will be doggedly followed too.
So that's why this blog will seem unusually quiet for a while!
CRICK: IN SEARCH OF BORIS JOHNSON
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I tuned into Newsnight for an investigation of the day's events concerning the release of a Megrahi. Who was Paxo going to to excoriate? Well, no one, as it happens.
Still Michael Crick was back. The Newsnight political editor would surely have lots of insights and revelations about Labour or the SNP in the light of the remarkable events of the last fortnight. I mean, not even Tory-basher Crick would be so blatant and shameless as to do yet another story about the Tories. Would he?
Of course he would!
As Jeremy listed the programme's menu, these ominous words were heard: "Michael Crick accompanies the Mayor of London on a pilgrimage to Brussels to intercede for hedge-fund managers." This is getting well beyond a joke.
"Johnson was off to Belgium to lobby against part of the draft EU directive which will impose tough new regulations on hedge funds, on private equity and venture capital."
A dig at the Tories' exit from the largest centre-right grouping in the European parliament was inevitable: "After seeing London MEPs, he dropped in on the Frenchman who's in charge of financial services for the EPP, the centre-right grouping in Europe which the Tories left
only a few weeks ago."
Next it was followed by the usual 'Tory splits' angle: "This trip exposes tensions in Tory ranks. Mr Johnson feels he should make a public stand for the financial services industry at a time when he knows his party front bench has chosen not to. Boris Johnson's day trip campaign here in Brussels today has adopted a very, very different tone to that set by David Cameron back in Britain over the last few months. David Cameron has attacked the government ferociously for what he sees as its failure to regulate properly."
"But Mr Johnson's campaign clearly hits home with Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP..."Wow! Crick talking to UKIP. It could only be because he wants to get at the Tories, couldn't it? To continue Crick's sentence though, "...with Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP, whom I encountered quite by chance." I bet he did. Says it all really. Crick would never seek out Mr Farage by design!!!
He gloated over a 'lapse of memory' by Tim Kirkhope, leader of the British Conservative MEPs:
"Later Mr Kirkhope's office contacted us to confirm that the Tories had indeed voted for the original motion which led to the contentious draft directive - though, they claim, amending it more to their liking.'"
After talking over Boris's comments after a meeting, Crick goes on "Mr Johnson's office has promised a more substantial interview on the train back to London but suddenly pulled out not long before the train did." (I don't blame them. Why should they talk to this most biased of BBC reporters?) "Which is a pity because I would have liked to ask Mr Johnson some pretty tough questions." (I bet you would, Michael!! Why don't you try asking some of the Labour Party too?")
Brace yourselves, here's Crick's climactic passage and those 'pretty tough questions':
"First, about the obvious differences between him and David Cameron on regulation. Why isn't Mr Cameron at the moment coming out in support of hedge funds?" Back to 'Tory splits!
"Second, I would have liked to have raised a point made by the Liberal Democrats" (of course you would, Michael. You like the Lib Dems, don't you?). Are we moving towards the inevitable 'Tory sleaze' angle? Oh, yes!!: "They've claimed that the Tories and Boris Johnson's campaign last year have been awash with hedge fund money. Three hedge-fund bosses gave Mr Johnson's mayoral campaign almost £50,000, including Stanley Fink, who's now co-treasurer of the Conservative Party." (He thrust his face very oddly towards the camera for the words 'Stanley Fink' then, following on from 'Fink', moved back again!!)
"Which leads to a bigger question. Would a David Cameron goverment in practise, once the election's won, end up supporting hedge funds and the alternative investments markets as boldly as Boris Johnson did today?"
I tuned into Newsnight for an investigation of the day's events concerning the release of a Megrahi. Who was Paxo going to to excoriate? Well, no one, as it happens.
Still Michael Crick was back. The Newsnight political editor would surely have lots of insights and revelations about Labour or the SNP in the light of the remarkable events of the last fortnight. I mean, not even Tory-basher Crick would be so blatant and shameless as to do yet another story about the Tories. Would he?
Of course he would!
As Jeremy listed the programme's menu, these ominous words were heard: "Michael Crick accompanies the Mayor of London on a pilgrimage to Brussels to intercede for hedge-fund managers." This is getting well beyond a joke.
"Johnson was off to Belgium to lobby against part of the draft EU directive which will impose tough new regulations on hedge funds, on private equity and venture capital."
A dig at the Tories' exit from the largest centre-right grouping in the European parliament was inevitable: "After seeing London MEPs, he dropped in on the Frenchman who's in charge of financial services for the EPP, the centre-right grouping in Europe which the Tories left
only a few weeks ago."
Next it was followed by the usual 'Tory splits' angle: "This trip exposes tensions in Tory ranks. Mr Johnson feels he should make a public stand for the financial services industry at a time when he knows his party front bench has chosen not to. Boris Johnson's day trip campaign here in Brussels today has adopted a very, very different tone to that set by David Cameron back in Britain over the last few months. David Cameron has attacked the government ferociously for what he sees as its failure to regulate properly."
"But Mr Johnson's campaign clearly hits home with Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP..."Wow! Crick talking to UKIP. It could only be because he wants to get at the Tories, couldn't it? To continue Crick's sentence though, "...with Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP, whom I encountered quite by chance." I bet he did. Says it all really. Crick would never seek out Mr Farage by design!!!
He gloated over a 'lapse of memory' by Tim Kirkhope, leader of the British Conservative MEPs:
"Later Mr Kirkhope's office contacted us to confirm that the Tories had indeed voted for the original motion which led to the contentious draft directive - though, they claim, amending it more to their liking.'"
After talking over Boris's comments after a meeting, Crick goes on "Mr Johnson's office has promised a more substantial interview on the train back to London but suddenly pulled out not long before the train did." (I don't blame them. Why should they talk to this most biased of BBC reporters?) "Which is a pity because I would have liked to ask Mr Johnson some pretty tough questions." (I bet you would, Michael!! Why don't you try asking some of the Labour Party too?")
Brace yourselves, here's Crick's climactic passage and those 'pretty tough questions':
"First, about the obvious differences between him and David Cameron on regulation. Why isn't Mr Cameron at the moment coming out in support of hedge funds?" Back to 'Tory splits!
"Second, I would have liked to have raised a point made by the Liberal Democrats" (of course you would, Michael. You like the Lib Dems, don't you?). Are we moving towards the inevitable 'Tory sleaze' angle? Oh, yes!!: "They've claimed that the Tories and Boris Johnson's campaign last year have been awash with hedge fund money. Three hedge-fund bosses gave Mr Johnson's mayoral campaign almost £50,000, including Stanley Fink, who's now co-treasurer of the Conservative Party." (He thrust his face very oddly towards the camera for the words 'Stanley Fink' then, following on from 'Fink', moved back again!!)
"Which leads to a bigger question. Would a David Cameron goverment in practise, once the election's won, end up supporting hedge funds and the alternative investments markets as boldly as Boris Johnson did today?"
Again, I ask, why is this man allowed to get away with such Tory-bashing, week after week after week? Why is he not hauled before the BBC high command and reprimanded? It would be fine if he bashed Labour in the same way. He doesn't (as I've shown). How can such relentless bias be allowed to continue?
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The Crick Count:
Conservative - 2 *********Tory - 6
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
FIRE v ICE
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The BBC looks to be finally shifting some of the attention away from the SNP and onto Labour over their peculiar relations with Libya and their evasiveness over the release of al Megrahi - if this morning's Today is anything to go by. (Last night's Newsnight, in contrast, was still fixing most of its focus on the SNP, with the returning Jeremy Paxman scoring a whopping I.C. of 2.6 against Alex Salmond.)
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Kudos to Evan Davis for training his fire so effectively on David Miliband. At one point Evan got so worked up I thought he was going to have to blow into a paper bag! The interview scored an I.C. of 1.1.
No kudos to Jim Naughtie though. If Evan was fiery, Naughtie was icy in his interview with David Cameron. (It's a wonder Cameron didn't catch frostbite). Megrahi/Libya was again the topic and an I.C. of 0.8 was scored.
Naughtie also interviewed a couple of Labour politicians, with predictable results - a puny 0.3 for his climate change-based interview with Ed Miliband (who is visiting India and Bangladesh) & an even more puny 0 for his interview about MOD systems/air accidents with defence minister Kevan Jones. The tone for both was much warmer.
Naughtie never gets any better.
The BBC looks to be finally shifting some of the attention away from the SNP and onto Labour over their peculiar relations with Libya and their evasiveness over the release of al Megrahi - if this morning's Today is anything to go by. (Last night's Newsnight, in contrast, was still fixing most of its focus on the SNP, with the returning Jeremy Paxman scoring a whopping I.C. of 2.6 against Alex Salmond.)
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Kudos to Evan Davis for training his fire so effectively on David Miliband. At one point Evan got so worked up I thought he was going to have to blow into a paper bag! The interview scored an I.C. of 1.1.
No kudos to Jim Naughtie though. If Evan was fiery, Naughtie was icy in his interview with David Cameron. (It's a wonder Cameron didn't catch frostbite). Megrahi/Libya was again the topic and an I.C. of 0.8 was scored.
Naughtie also interviewed a couple of Labour politicians, with predictable results - a puny 0.3 for his climate change-based interview with Ed Miliband (who is visiting India and Bangladesh) & an even more puny 0 for his interview about MOD systems/air accidents with defence minister Kevan Jones. The tone for both was much warmer.
Naughtie never gets any better.
AUGUST'S I.C.s - EMILY MAITLIS
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Emily Maitlis broadened her party range in August. This is apt, as Emily likes her parties. She was not very active however, as all these results came from one edition of Newsnight (that of 27/8):
David Willetts, Conservative - 1
David Laws, Lib Dem - 0.5
Vernon Coaker, Labour - 0.3
Sir Ming Campbell, Lib Dem - 0
David Willetts, Conservative - 0
Note also that Sir Ming got another free ride. (Lucky man!)
Emily Maitlis broadened her party range in August. This is apt, as Emily likes her parties. She was not very active however, as all these results came from one edition of Newsnight (that of 27/8):
David Willetts, Conservative - 1
David Laws, Lib Dem - 0.5
Vernon Coaker, Labour - 0.3
Sir Ming Campbell, Lib Dem - 0
David Willetts, Conservative - 0
Average number of interruptions per political party:
Conservative - 0.5
Labour - 0.3
Lib Dems - 0.3
The top three results all came from one joint-interview, & the bias against Mr Willetts was palpable. Emily was all over him - though not in a good way! (I have reviewed this elsewhere). When Willetts returned this imbalance was somewhat redressed (though it was a lighter spot, on 'Labour's children').
*Note also that Sir Ming got another free ride. (Lucky man!)
AUGUST'S I.C.s - EDDIE MAIR
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As with July, last month saw the Laird of PM on typically unpredictable form.
Diana Johnson, Labour (4/8) - 2.3
Edwina Currie, Conservative (6/8) - 1.2
Kenny MacAskill, SNP (20/8) - 1.1
Philip Hammond, Conservative (4/8) - 1
Alex Salmond, SNP (28/8) - 1
Ed Davey, Lib Dem (17/8) - 0.6
Phil Woolas, Labour (27/8) - 0.5
Lord Bill McKenzie, Labour (28/8) - 0.4
Christine Graham, SNP (17/8) - 0.4
Hanzala Malik, Labour (11/8) - 0.4
Jane Davidson, Labour (10/8) - 0.4
John Battle, Labour (17/8) - 0.4
William Hague, Conservative (11/8) - 0
Tom Watson, Labour (25/8) - 0
Vince Cable, Lib Dem (13/8) - 0
Lord Fraser, Conservative (24/8) - 0
These are nothing like last month's figures (for which please click on Eddie Mair's label). This is what I like to see!
As with July, last month saw the Laird of PM on typically unpredictable form.
Diana Johnson, Labour (4/8) - 2.3
Edwina Currie, Conservative (6/8) - 1.2
Kenny MacAskill, SNP (20/8) - 1.1
Philip Hammond, Conservative (4/8) - 1
Alex Salmond, SNP (28/8) - 1
Ed Davey, Lib Dem (17/8) - 0.6
Phil Woolas, Labour (27/8) - 0.5
Lord Bill McKenzie, Labour (28/8) - 0.4
Christine Graham, SNP (17/8) - 0.4
Hanzala Malik, Labour (11/8) - 0.4
Jane Davidson, Labour (10/8) - 0.4
John Battle, Labour (17/8) - 0.4
William Hague, Conservative (11/8) - 0
Tom Watson, Labour (25/8) - 0
Vince Cable, Lib Dem (13/8) - 0
Lord Fraser, Conservative (24/8) - 0
Average number of interruptions per political party:
SNP - 0.8
Labour - 0.6
Conservatives - 0.6
Lib Dems - 0.3
These are nothing like last month's figures (for which please click on Eddie Mair's label). This is what I like to see!
AUGUST'S I.C.s - EDWARD STOURTON
After an uncontroversial showing in July, Posh Ed let himself down badly this month, with a surprisingly aggressive interview with Andrew Lansley (over those comments by Dan Hannan) and a soft interview with Hilary Benn over the 'food revolution'.
Here are Ed's interruption coefficients for August:
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Andrew Lansley, Conservative (14/8) 0.9
Steve O'Brien, Conservative (10/8) 0.6
Hilary Benn, Labour (10/8) 0.2
Tony Wright, Labour (10/8) 0
Mike Gapes, Labour (8/8) 0
Margo MacDonald,Independent (24/8) 0
Sir Ming Campbell, Lib Dem (17/8) 0
Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem (11/8) - 0
Sir Ming got his usual free ride at the BBC! * **************************************************
Average number of interruptions per political party:
Conservatives - 0.8
Labour - 0.1
Lib Dems - 0
Conservatives - 0.8
Labour - 0.1
Lib Dems - 0
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The quiet man turns bad boy of bias!
AUGUST'S I.C.s - CAROLYN QUINN
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Last month I pledged to eat my hat if proof didn't arise from the I.C.s for pro-left bias from Carolyn Quinn. My hat's fate is still in the balance as Carolyn was off for most of August & what few interviews she did are not conclusive either way:
Janet Anderson, Labour (2/8) - 0.8
David Cameron, Conservative (2/8) - 0.8
Alison Seabeck. Labour (9/8) - 0.8
Evan Harris. Lib Dem (2/8) - 0.5
Dan Hannan, Conservative (9/8) - 0.4
Evan Harris. Lib Dem (9/8) - 0.4
Angela Eagle, Labour (8/8) - 0
Every month so far though the same rankings have been achieved, so the suggestion of bias remains strong. Moreover, please click on the label for Carolyn Quinn or, better still, on the link provided below for a discussion of Janet Anderson's high score and why all is not as it seems:
http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/search/label/Carolyn%20Quinn
Last month I pledged to eat my hat if proof didn't arise from the I.C.s for pro-left bias from Carolyn Quinn. My hat's fate is still in the balance as Carolyn was off for most of August & what few interviews she did are not conclusive either way:
Janet Anderson, Labour (2/8) - 0.8
David Cameron, Conservative (2/8) - 0.8
Alison Seabeck. Labour (9/8) - 0.8
Evan Harris. Lib Dem (2/8) - 0.5
Dan Hannan, Conservative (9/8) - 0.4
Evan Harris. Lib Dem (9/8) - 0.4
Angela Eagle, Labour (8/8) - 0
Average number of interruptions per political party:
Conservative - 0.6
Labour - 0.5
Lib Dem - 0.5
Every month so far though the same rankings have been achieved, so the suggestion of bias remains strong. Moreover, please click on the label for Carolyn Quinn or, better still, on the link provided below for a discussion of Janet Anderson's high score and why all is not as it seems:
http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/search/label/Carolyn%20Quinn
AUGUST'S I.C.s - BRIAN HANRAHAN
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I'll begin with long-serving BBC irregular Brian Hanrahan. His only previous appearance on this blog was for an interview with Ed Balls (Labour) (26/6), which scored a lowly 0.2.
His return in August gave listeners 4 interviews to savour - and, most unusually, 3 out of 4 of them were with Conservatives.
Here are August's interruption coefficients for Brian Hanrahan:
Timothy Kirkhope, Conservative (14/8) - 1.4
Andy Burham, Labour (14/8) - 0.9
Gerald Howarth, Conservative (3/8) - 0.3
James Arbuthnot, Conservative (7/8) - 0
The evidence for bias here is, I think it's safe to say, contradictory. Note though that the top two scores were on the same programme & on the same subject - Dan Hannan's comments on the NHS - and, so, are directly comparable.
I'll begin with long-serving BBC irregular Brian Hanrahan. His only previous appearance on this blog was for an interview with Ed Balls (Labour) (26/6), which scored a lowly 0.2.
His return in August gave listeners 4 interviews to savour - and, most unusually, 3 out of 4 of them were with Conservatives.
Here are August's interruption coefficients for Brian Hanrahan:
Timothy Kirkhope, Conservative (14/8) - 1.4
Andy Burham, Labour (14/8) - 0.9
Gerald Howarth, Conservative (3/8) - 0.3
James Arbuthnot, Conservative (7/8) - 0
Average number of interruptions per political party:
Labour - 0.9
Conservatives - 0.6
The evidence for bias here is, I think it's safe to say, contradictory. Note though that the top two scores were on the same programme & on the same subject - Dan Hannan's comments on the NHS - and, so, are directly comparable.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
AUGUST'S I.C.s - THAT'S ENOUGH FOR ONE DAY!
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After all that number-crunching a glass of wine is needed. The individual interviewer reviews will follow over the coming days! Who's been naughty and who's been good?
After all that number-crunching a glass of wine is needed. The individual interviewer reviews will follow over the coming days! Who's been naughty and who's been good?
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.
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.
AUGUST'S I.C.s - AIR-TIME PERCENTAGES
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Here are the percentages for the amounts of interview air-time for each political party (as shown in the previous post ). This (as you may know) is one of my favourite indicators of bias. The figures are similar to last months (and June's too), except for the Labour & SNP figures. There has been a noticable swing from Labour to the SNP!! Still, Labour continues to have an absolute majority of the BBC's air-time.
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Labour 52.21%
Conservatives 22.55%
Liberal Democrats 13.19%
SNP 9.61%
Greens 1.04%
Independent 0.53%
UKIP 0.50%
Plaid Cymru - 0.37%
Here are the percentages for the amounts of interview air-time for each political party (as shown in the previous post ). This (as you may know) is one of my favourite indicators of bias. The figures are similar to last months (and June's too), except for the Labour & SNP figures. There has been a noticable swing from Labour to the SNP!! Still, Labour continues to have an absolute majority of the BBC's air-time.
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Labour 52.21%
Conservatives 22.55%
Liberal Democrats 13.19%
SNP 9.61%
Greens 1.04%
Independent 0.53%
UKIP 0.50%
Plaid Cymru - 0.37%
AUGUST'S I.C.s - TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME EACH PARTY GOT
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Who hogged all the hours & minutes & seconds of the BBC's precious interview air-time in August? You'll never guess!!
Labour - 6 hours, 5 minutes & 33 seconds
Conservatives - 2 hours, 37 minutes & 57 seconds
Liberal Democrats - 1 hour, 32 minutes & 15 seconds
SNP - 1 hour, 7 minutes & 6 seconds
Greens - 7 minutes & 11 seconds
Independents - 3 minutes & 47 seconds
UKIP - 3 minutes & 33 seconds
Plaid Cymru - 2 minutes & 42 seconds
Who hogged all the hours & minutes & seconds of the BBC's precious interview air-time in August? You'll never guess!!
Labour - 6 hours, 5 minutes & 33 seconds
Conservatives - 2 hours, 37 minutes & 57 seconds
Liberal Democrats - 1 hour, 32 minutes & 15 seconds
SNP - 1 hour, 7 minutes & 6 seconds
Greens - 7 minutes & 11 seconds
Independents - 3 minutes & 47 seconds
UKIP - 3 minutes & 33 seconds
Plaid Cymru - 2 minutes & 42 seconds
AUGUST'S I.C.s - NUMBER OF PARTY APPEARANCES
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Who got the invites in August 2009? There were 164 interviews with UK politicians.
Labour - 80
Conservatives - 39
Liberal Democrats - 27
SNP - 14
Green - 1
Independent - 1
UKIP - 1
Plaid Cymru - 1
BNP - 0
Who got the invites in August 2009? There were 164 interviews with UK politicians.
Labour - 80
Conservatives - 39
Liberal Democrats - 27
SNP - 14
Green - 1
Independent - 1
UKIP - 1
Plaid Cymru - 1
BNP - 0
AUGUST'S INTERRUPTION COEFFICIENTS - THE FULL LIST
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It's that time of the month again!
August is nearing its soggy end and that means it's time for this month's interruption co-efficients. With many of the top predators (the BBC interviewers)on holiday and much of their prey (our beloved politicians) on holiday, the number of interviews fell sharply this month to a total of 164. Still that's plenty to work on.
The list of programmes bears repeating again (although several of these were on holiday too!!):
Today
The World At One
PM
The World Tonight
Newsnight
The Daily Politics
The Andrew Marr Show
The Politics Show
The Politics Show: Scotland
Dragon's Eye
The World This Weekend
Westminster Hour
...and newcomer Broadcasting House
Unlike last time (when I didn't yet know how to copy and paste onto Blogger!), this month I will begin by simply putting the full list onto my blog. The list goes from the toughest to the gentlest, & all those that share an I.C. are weighted by a 'question coefficient' (ie. the number of questions asked/the length of the interview), so they everything is ranked just where it should be ranked.
It will not be pretty to look at (as I haven't time - yet - to fully colour-coordinate it or puncuate it!), but it should be easy to follow nonetheless. So here goes!!
Programme, Date, Interviewer, Interviewee, Party, Length of time, I.C.
PM 4.8.09 Eddie Mair Diana Johnson Labour 4.41 2.3
Newsnight 25.08.09 Kirsty Wark Tessa Jowell Labour 6.03 1.7
Newsnight 17.08.09 Kirsty Wark Vince Cable Lib Dem 3.18 1.6
Newsnight 20.08.09 Gavin Esler Kenny MacAskill SNP 4.51 1.6
World at One 14.08.09 Brian Hanrahan Timothy Kirkhope Conservative 2.18 1.4
World at One 13.08.09 Martha Kearney Daniel Kawczynski Conservative 1.48 1.4
Newsnight 13.08.09 Gavin Esler Ann Keen Labour 1.53 1.3
PM 6.8.09 Eddie Mair Edwina Currie Conservative 2.48 1.2
Today 6.8.09 Jim Naughtie Grant Shapps Conservative 2.53 1.2
Marr Show 9.8.09 Sophie Raworth Andrew Lansley Conservative 8.08 1.2
Newsnight 10.08.09 Kirsty Wark Hilary Benn Labour 3.23 1.2
Today 11.08.09 Jim Naughtie George Osborne Conservative 8.05 1.2
PM 20.08.09 Eddie Mair Kenny MacAskill SNP 4.45 1.1
Marr Show 16.08.09 Huw Edwards Michael Gove Conservative 7.51 1.1
World at One 27.08.09 Martha Kearney Nick Gibb Conservative 2.03 1
PM 4.8.09 Eddie Mair Philip Hammond Conservative 3.09 1
Today 21.08.09 John Humphrys Alex Salmond SNP 6.27 1
Marr Show 2.8.09 Stephanie Flanders Vince Cable Lib Dem 7.2 1
Today 4.8.09 Sarah Montague Ivan Lewis Labour 6.11 1
PM 28.08.09 Eddie Mair Alex Salmond SNP 6.06 1
Newsnight 27.08.09 Emily Maitlis David Willetts Conservative 4.01 1
Today 20.08.09 Evan Davis Alistair Darling Labour 8.01 1
Today 21.08.09 John Humphrys David Miliband Labour 12.09 0.9
Today 12.08.09 Jim Naughtie Ed Vaizey Conservative 3.34 0.9
Today 14.08.09 Ed Stourton Andrew Lansley Conservative 7.37 0.9
World at One 27.08.09 Martha Kearney Vernon Coaker Labour 3.34 0.9
Today 22.08.09 John Humphrys David Lidington Conservative 2.29 0.9
Newsnight 12.08.09 Kirsty Wark Angela Eagle Labour 4.27 0.9
Marr Show 16.08.09 Huw Edwards Bob Ainsworth Labour 12.26 0.9
World at One 24.08.09 Martha Kearney Nick Clegg Lib Dem 3.31 0.9
World at One 14.08.09 Brian Hanrahan Andy Burnham Labour 4.56 0.9
World at One 18.08.09 Martha Kearney Alistair Darling Labour 5.53 0.9
World at One 19.08.09 Martha Kearney Douglas Alexander Labour 4.49 0.9
Today 20.08.09 John Humphrys Lord Baker Conservative 2.24 0.9
Westminster Hour 2.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Janet Anderson Labour 3.54 0.8
PM 29.08.09 Ritula Shah Gerald Howarth Conservative 2.47 0.8
Newsnight 14.08.09 Gavin Esler Andrew Lansley Conservative 3.59 0.8
Westminster Hour 2.8.09 Carolyn Quinn David Cameron Conservative 15.24 0.8
Newsnight 11.08.09 Kirsty Wark Ivan Lewis Labour 2.39 0.8
Broadcasting House 30.08.09 Stephen Evans Alex Salmond SNP 6.19 0.8
Today 20.08.09 Evan Davis David Lammy Labour 7.34 0.8
Westminster Hour 9.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Alison Seabeck Labour 3.53 0.8
Today 12.08.09 Evan Davis Peter Mandelson Labour 14.51 0.8
World at One 11.08.09 Martha Kearney Lord Mandelson Labour 6.08 0.7
Today 17.08.09 Evan Davis Lord Adonis Labour 3.03 0.7
World at One 28.08.09 Shaun Ley Gisella Stuart Labour 3.02 0.7
Marr Show 2.8.09 Stephanie Flanders Harriet Harman Labour 13.23 0.7
Newsnight 19.08.09 Kirsty Wark Douglas Alexander Labour 5.52 0.7
PM 17.08.09 Eddie Mair Ed Davey Lib Dem 3.29 0.6
Newsnight 21.08.09 Gavin Esler Iain Gray Labour 3.39 0.6
Westminster Hour 30.08.09 Mark D'Arcy Nigel Farage UKIP 3.33 0.6
Today 3.8.09 Sarah Montague Phil Woolas Labour 6.32 0.6
Today 10.8.09 Ed Stourton Steve O'Brien Conservative 3.45 0.6
Newsnight 12.08.09 Kirsty Wark John Redwood Conservative 3.12 0.6
World at One 17.08.09 Martha Kearney Richard Baker Labour 2.27 0.6
Broadcasting House 23.08.09 Stephen Evans Alex Salmond SNP 6.23 0.6
Today 19.08.09 Evan Davis Roger Berry Labour 3.39 0.6
Today 28.08.09 Justin Webb Sir Malcolm Rifkind Conservative 3.39 0.6
Today 17.08.09 Evan Davis Murad Qureshi Labour 2.06 0.5
Newsnight 21.08.09 Gavin Esler George Kerevan SNP 2 0.5
Newsnight 3.8.09 Kirsty Wark Vince Cable Lib Dem 2.16 0.5
PM 22.08.09 Ritula Shah Mike Gapes Labour 3.17 0.5
PM 27.08.09 Eddie Mair Phil Woolas Labour 4.16 0.5
Westminster Hour 16.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg Janet Anderson Labour 4.04 0.5
Westminster Hour 2.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Evan Harris Lib Dem 4.37 0.5
Today 25.08.09 Evan Davis Denis MacShane Labour 2.02 0.5
Newsnight 27.08.09 Emily Maitlis David Laws Lib Dem 2.2 0.5
PM 28.08.09 Eddie Mair Lord Bill McKenzie Labour 2.48 0.4
Today 12.08.09 Evan Davis Lord Layard Labour 2.34 0.4
Newsnight 3.8.09 Kirsty Wark John McFall Labour 2.51 0.4
PM 17.08.09 Eddie Mair Christine Graham SNP 2.52 0.4
Newsnight 7.8.09 Gavin Esler Gisella Stuart Labour 2.59 0.4
Today 31.08.09 Jim Naughtie Nicola Sturgeon SNP 5.54 0.4
PM 11.08.09 Eddie Mair Hanzala Malik Labour 2.34 0.4
Newsnight 5.8.09 Kirsty Wark Christine Graham SNP 2.42 0.4
PM 10.8.09 Eddie Mair Jane Davidson Labour 2.58 0.4
PM 17.08.09 Eddie Mair John Battle Labour 2.57 0.4
Westminster Hour 30.08.09 Mark D'Arcy Charles Tannock Conservative 7.34 0.4
Westminster Hour 9.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Dan Hannan Conservative 5.25 0.4
Westminster Hour 9.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Evan Harris Lib Dem 5.42 0.4
Newsnight 10.08.09 Kirsty Wark Lynne Featherstone Lib Dem 3.29 0.3
Newsnight 27.08.09 Emily Maitlis Vernon Coaker Labour 3.26 0.3
Marr Show 9.8.09 Sophie Raworth Hilary Benn Labour 7.07 0.3
Today 25.08.09 Evan Davis John Redwood Conservative 3.16 0.3
World Tonight 5.8.09 Ritula Shah Malcolm Wicks Labour 3.32 0.3
Today 8.8.09 Jim Naughtie John McFall Labour 3.26 0.3
The World Tonight 3.8.09 Brian Hanrahan Gerald Howarth Conservative 3.25 0.3
Marr Show 16.08.09 Huw Edwards Caroline Flint Labour 6.54 0.3
Today 17.08.09 Evan Davis Bob Ainsworth Labour 7.48 0.3
Westminster Hour 16.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg Ed Vaizey Conservative 4.38 0.2
World at One 19.08.09 Martha Kearney Christine Graham SNP 5.35 0.2
Today 14.08.09 Evan Davis Jim Fitzpatrick Labour 4.19 0.2
Newsnight 24.08.09 Kirsty Wark Alex Salmond SNP 5.15 0.2
Newsnight 26.08.09 Kirsty Wark Douglas Alexander Labour 5.09 0.2
Today 10.8.09 Ed Stourton Hilary Benn Labour 6.09 0.2
Today 20.08.09 John Humphrys Sir Patrick Cormack Conservative 4.36 0.2
Westminster Hour 16.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg Evan Harris Lib Dem 5.35 0.2
Westminster Hour 30.08.09 Mark D'Arcy Caroline Lucas Green 7.11 0.1
World at One 11.08.09 Martha Kearney Peter Luff Conservative 1.48 0
Today 15.08.09 Evan Davis Denis MacShane Labour 1.46 0
World at One 21.08.09 Shaun Ley Lord Trefgarne Conservative 3.5 0
World at One 5.8.09 Shaun Ley Vince Cable Lib Dem 2.45 0
World at One 21.08.09 Shaun Ley Tam Dalyell Labour 2.58 0
World Tonight 12.08.09 Robin Lustig Ieuan Wyn Jones Plaid Cymru 2.42 0
Today 5.8.09 Jim Naughtie Tim Yeo Conservative 2.37 0
World at One 13.08.09 Martha Kearney Christine Graham SNP 1.49 0
Newsnight 4.8.09 Kirsty Wark Philip Hammond Conservative 2.44 0
Today 11.08.09 Jim Naughtie Andrew Dismore Labour 3.22 0
Today 13.08.09 Jim Naughtie Lynne Featherstone Lib Dem 3.16 0
Today 14.08.09 Evan Davis Vince Cable Lib Dem 1.57 0
World at One 4.8.09 Shaun Ley Jim Cousins Labour 3.32 0
Today 10.8.09 Ed Stourton Tony Wright Labour 2.21 0
PM 8.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Angela Eagle Labour 3.35 0
World Tonight 12.08.09 Robin Lustig David Drew Labour 3.13 0
PM 14.08.09 James Landale Roger Helmer Conservative 3.15 0
PM 11.08.09 Eddie Mair William Hague Conservative 2.57 0
World Tonight 19.08.09 Ritula Shah Stephen Williams Lib Dem 1.23 0
Today 21.08.09 Quentin Sommerville Tony Blair Labour 3.09 0
Today 24.08.09 Evan Davis Louise Ellman Labour 2.56 0
PM 25.08.09 Eddie Mair Tom Watson Labour 2.56 0
World This Weekend 30.08.09 Shaun Ley Alan Campbell Labour 3.17 0
World at One 6.8.09 Shaun Ley Stephen Timms Labour 3.38 0
Today 4.8.09 Sarah Montague Andrew Dismore Labour 4.11 0
PM 14.08.09 James Landale Chris Bryant Labour 2.02 0
Today 24.08.09 Evan Davis Lord Steel Lib Dem 5.45 0
Today 4.8.09 Evan Davis Vince Cable Lib Dem 3.58 0
Today 8.8.09 Ed Stourton Mike Gapes Labour 2.17 0
Today 22.08.09 John Humphrys Ed Davey Lib Dem 1.48 0
Today 24.08.09 Ed Stourton Margo MacDonald Independent 3.47 0
Today 3.8.09 Sarah Montague Phil Willis Lib Dem 3.1 0
Newsnight 12.08.09 Kirsty Wark Vince Cable Lib Dem 2.27 0
Today 17.08.09 Ed Stourton Ming Campbell Lib Dem 1.56 0
World Tonight 17.08.09 Ritula Shah Gisella Stuart Labour 3.12 0
World at One 18.08.09 Martha Kearney Paul Holmes Lib Dem 2.24 0
World Tonight 21.08.09 Robin Lustig Richard Baker Labour 3.11 0
Newsnight 27.08.09 Emily Maitlis Sir Ming Campbell Lib Dem 1.54 0
World at One 3.8.09 Shaun Ley Ian Pearson Labour 4.07 0
World at One 5.8.09 Shaun Ley Vera Baird Labour 3.21 0
Newsnight 14.08.09 Gavin Esler Andy Burnham Labour 2.51 0
Today 13.08.09 Evan Davies Alan Beith Lib Dem 3.23 0
PM 13.08.09 Eddie Mair Vince Cable Lib Dem 3.45 0
World at One 7.8.09 Brian Hanrahan James Arbuthnot Conservative 3.23 0
Westminster Hour 23.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg Pete Wishart SNP 6.08 0
PM 24.08.09 Eddie Mair Lord Fraser Conservative 4.02 0
Newsnight 27.08.09 Emily Maitlis David Willetts Conservative 2.42 0
World This Weekend 2.8.09 Shaun Ley Bill Rammell Labour 4.39 0
Westminster Hour 23.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg Tom Harris Labour 5.29 0
World at One 27.08.09 Martha Kearney Boris Johnson Conservative 3.53 0
World Tonight 27.08.09 Ritula Shah Lord Ashdown Lib Dem 3.59 0
Today 1.8.09 Robert Peston Lord Myners Labour 4.1 0
World Tonight 10.8.09 Ritula Shah Ann Widdecombe Conservative 2.01 0
World Tonight 21.08.09 Robin Lustig Ivan Lewis Labour 3.12 0
World This Weekend 30.08.09 Shaun Ley Jack Straw Labour 5.21 0
World Tonight 13.08.09 Robin Lustig Sir Ming Campbell Lib Dem 3.28 0
World at One 13.08.09 Martha Kearney Sir Patrick Cormack Conservative 3.35 0
Today 11.08.09 Jim Naughtie Ivan Lewis Labour 2.29 0
PM 14.08.09 James Landale Lord West Goat 4.32 0
Today 11.08.09 Ed Stourton Lynne Featherstone Lib Dem 3.22 0
Westminster Hour 23.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg David Mundell Conservative 4.22 0
World at One 28.08.09 Shaun Ley Frank Field Labour 2.28 0
Today 10.8.09 Jim Naughtie Kim Howell Labour 3.59 0
World at One 4.8.09 Shaun Ley Frank Field Labour 3.47 0
Today 6.8.09 Jim Naughtie Quentin Davies Labour 6.35 0
Today 26.08.09 Evan Davis John Prescott Labour 3.37 0
Some surprises at the top, few surprises at the bottom!!
******************************************
***************************APPENDIX
******************************************
Just to make this post even longer...!!!
I thought, taking the excellent advice of John Horne Tooke, that I might add a not-so-little appendix to the main list here. It's the same list again but with some added details. (To have merged them would have made them hard to read, as each entry would have been broken onto two lines of Blogger space.)
John Horne Tooke wanted to know what were the topics of each interview, so as to set them in context.
It's that time of the month again!
August is nearing its soggy end and that means it's time for this month's interruption co-efficients. With many of the top predators (the BBC interviewers)on holiday and much of their prey (our beloved politicians) on holiday, the number of interviews fell sharply this month to a total of 164. Still that's plenty to work on.
The list of programmes bears repeating again (although several of these were on holiday too!!):
Today
The World At One
PM
The World Tonight
Newsnight
The Daily Politics
The Andrew Marr Show
The Politics Show
The Politics Show: Scotland
Dragon's Eye
The World This Weekend
Westminster Hour
...and newcomer Broadcasting House
Unlike last time (when I didn't yet know how to copy and paste onto Blogger!), this month I will begin by simply putting the full list onto my blog. The list goes from the toughest to the gentlest, & all those that share an I.C. are weighted by a 'question coefficient' (ie. the number of questions asked/the length of the interview), so they everything is ranked just where it should be ranked.
It will not be pretty to look at (as I haven't time - yet - to fully colour-coordinate it or puncuate it!), but it should be easy to follow nonetheless. So here goes!!
Programme, Date, Interviewer, Interviewee, Party, Length of time, I.C.
PM 4.8.09 Eddie Mair Diana Johnson Labour 4.41 2.3
Newsnight 25.08.09 Kirsty Wark Tessa Jowell Labour 6.03 1.7
Newsnight 17.08.09 Kirsty Wark Vince Cable Lib Dem 3.18 1.6
Newsnight 20.08.09 Gavin Esler Kenny MacAskill SNP 4.51 1.6
World at One 14.08.09 Brian Hanrahan Timothy Kirkhope Conservative 2.18 1.4
World at One 13.08.09 Martha Kearney Daniel Kawczynski Conservative 1.48 1.4
Newsnight 13.08.09 Gavin Esler Ann Keen Labour 1.53 1.3
PM 6.8.09 Eddie Mair Edwina Currie Conservative 2.48 1.2
Today 6.8.09 Jim Naughtie Grant Shapps Conservative 2.53 1.2
Marr Show 9.8.09 Sophie Raworth Andrew Lansley Conservative 8.08 1.2
Newsnight 10.08.09 Kirsty Wark Hilary Benn Labour 3.23 1.2
Today 11.08.09 Jim Naughtie George Osborne Conservative 8.05 1.2
PM 20.08.09 Eddie Mair Kenny MacAskill SNP 4.45 1.1
Marr Show 16.08.09 Huw Edwards Michael Gove Conservative 7.51 1.1
World at One 27.08.09 Martha Kearney Nick Gibb Conservative 2.03 1
PM 4.8.09 Eddie Mair Philip Hammond Conservative 3.09 1
Today 21.08.09 John Humphrys Alex Salmond SNP 6.27 1
Marr Show 2.8.09 Stephanie Flanders Vince Cable Lib Dem 7.2 1
Today 4.8.09 Sarah Montague Ivan Lewis Labour 6.11 1
PM 28.08.09 Eddie Mair Alex Salmond SNP 6.06 1
Newsnight 27.08.09 Emily Maitlis David Willetts Conservative 4.01 1
Today 20.08.09 Evan Davis Alistair Darling Labour 8.01 1
Today 21.08.09 John Humphrys David Miliband Labour 12.09 0.9
Today 12.08.09 Jim Naughtie Ed Vaizey Conservative 3.34 0.9
Today 14.08.09 Ed Stourton Andrew Lansley Conservative 7.37 0.9
World at One 27.08.09 Martha Kearney Vernon Coaker Labour 3.34 0.9
Today 22.08.09 John Humphrys David Lidington Conservative 2.29 0.9
Newsnight 12.08.09 Kirsty Wark Angela Eagle Labour 4.27 0.9
Marr Show 16.08.09 Huw Edwards Bob Ainsworth Labour 12.26 0.9
World at One 24.08.09 Martha Kearney Nick Clegg Lib Dem 3.31 0.9
World at One 14.08.09 Brian Hanrahan Andy Burnham Labour 4.56 0.9
World at One 18.08.09 Martha Kearney Alistair Darling Labour 5.53 0.9
World at One 19.08.09 Martha Kearney Douglas Alexander Labour 4.49 0.9
Today 20.08.09 John Humphrys Lord Baker Conservative 2.24 0.9
Westminster Hour 2.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Janet Anderson Labour 3.54 0.8
PM 29.08.09 Ritula Shah Gerald Howarth Conservative 2.47 0.8
Newsnight 14.08.09 Gavin Esler Andrew Lansley Conservative 3.59 0.8
Westminster Hour 2.8.09 Carolyn Quinn David Cameron Conservative 15.24 0.8
Newsnight 11.08.09 Kirsty Wark Ivan Lewis Labour 2.39 0.8
Broadcasting House 30.08.09 Stephen Evans Alex Salmond SNP 6.19 0.8
Today 20.08.09 Evan Davis David Lammy Labour 7.34 0.8
Westminster Hour 9.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Alison Seabeck Labour 3.53 0.8
Today 12.08.09 Evan Davis Peter Mandelson Labour 14.51 0.8
World at One 11.08.09 Martha Kearney Lord Mandelson Labour 6.08 0.7
Today 17.08.09 Evan Davis Lord Adonis Labour 3.03 0.7
World at One 28.08.09 Shaun Ley Gisella Stuart Labour 3.02 0.7
Marr Show 2.8.09 Stephanie Flanders Harriet Harman Labour 13.23 0.7
Newsnight 19.08.09 Kirsty Wark Douglas Alexander Labour 5.52 0.7
PM 17.08.09 Eddie Mair Ed Davey Lib Dem 3.29 0.6
Newsnight 21.08.09 Gavin Esler Iain Gray Labour 3.39 0.6
Westminster Hour 30.08.09 Mark D'Arcy Nigel Farage UKIP 3.33 0.6
Today 3.8.09 Sarah Montague Phil Woolas Labour 6.32 0.6
Today 10.8.09 Ed Stourton Steve O'Brien Conservative 3.45 0.6
Newsnight 12.08.09 Kirsty Wark John Redwood Conservative 3.12 0.6
World at One 17.08.09 Martha Kearney Richard Baker Labour 2.27 0.6
Broadcasting House 23.08.09 Stephen Evans Alex Salmond SNP 6.23 0.6
Today 19.08.09 Evan Davis Roger Berry Labour 3.39 0.6
Today 28.08.09 Justin Webb Sir Malcolm Rifkind Conservative 3.39 0.6
Today 17.08.09 Evan Davis Murad Qureshi Labour 2.06 0.5
Newsnight 21.08.09 Gavin Esler George Kerevan SNP 2 0.5
Newsnight 3.8.09 Kirsty Wark Vince Cable Lib Dem 2.16 0.5
PM 22.08.09 Ritula Shah Mike Gapes Labour 3.17 0.5
PM 27.08.09 Eddie Mair Phil Woolas Labour 4.16 0.5
Westminster Hour 16.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg Janet Anderson Labour 4.04 0.5
Westminster Hour 2.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Evan Harris Lib Dem 4.37 0.5
Today 25.08.09 Evan Davis Denis MacShane Labour 2.02 0.5
Newsnight 27.08.09 Emily Maitlis David Laws Lib Dem 2.2 0.5
PM 28.08.09 Eddie Mair Lord Bill McKenzie Labour 2.48 0.4
Today 12.08.09 Evan Davis Lord Layard Labour 2.34 0.4
Newsnight 3.8.09 Kirsty Wark John McFall Labour 2.51 0.4
PM 17.08.09 Eddie Mair Christine Graham SNP 2.52 0.4
Newsnight 7.8.09 Gavin Esler Gisella Stuart Labour 2.59 0.4
Today 31.08.09 Jim Naughtie Nicola Sturgeon SNP 5.54 0.4
PM 11.08.09 Eddie Mair Hanzala Malik Labour 2.34 0.4
Newsnight 5.8.09 Kirsty Wark Christine Graham SNP 2.42 0.4
PM 10.8.09 Eddie Mair Jane Davidson Labour 2.58 0.4
PM 17.08.09 Eddie Mair John Battle Labour 2.57 0.4
Westminster Hour 30.08.09 Mark D'Arcy Charles Tannock Conservative 7.34 0.4
Westminster Hour 9.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Dan Hannan Conservative 5.25 0.4
Westminster Hour 9.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Evan Harris Lib Dem 5.42 0.4
Newsnight 10.08.09 Kirsty Wark Lynne Featherstone Lib Dem 3.29 0.3
Newsnight 27.08.09 Emily Maitlis Vernon Coaker Labour 3.26 0.3
Marr Show 9.8.09 Sophie Raworth Hilary Benn Labour 7.07 0.3
Today 25.08.09 Evan Davis John Redwood Conservative 3.16 0.3
World Tonight 5.8.09 Ritula Shah Malcolm Wicks Labour 3.32 0.3
Today 8.8.09 Jim Naughtie John McFall Labour 3.26 0.3
The World Tonight 3.8.09 Brian Hanrahan Gerald Howarth Conservative 3.25 0.3
Marr Show 16.08.09 Huw Edwards Caroline Flint Labour 6.54 0.3
Today 17.08.09 Evan Davis Bob Ainsworth Labour 7.48 0.3
Westminster Hour 16.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg Ed Vaizey Conservative 4.38 0.2
World at One 19.08.09 Martha Kearney Christine Graham SNP 5.35 0.2
Today 14.08.09 Evan Davis Jim Fitzpatrick Labour 4.19 0.2
Newsnight 24.08.09 Kirsty Wark Alex Salmond SNP 5.15 0.2
Newsnight 26.08.09 Kirsty Wark Douglas Alexander Labour 5.09 0.2
Today 10.8.09 Ed Stourton Hilary Benn Labour 6.09 0.2
Today 20.08.09 John Humphrys Sir Patrick Cormack Conservative 4.36 0.2
Westminster Hour 16.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg Evan Harris Lib Dem 5.35 0.2
Westminster Hour 30.08.09 Mark D'Arcy Caroline Lucas Green 7.11 0.1
World at One 11.08.09 Martha Kearney Peter Luff Conservative 1.48 0
Today 15.08.09 Evan Davis Denis MacShane Labour 1.46 0
World at One 21.08.09 Shaun Ley Lord Trefgarne Conservative 3.5 0
World at One 5.8.09 Shaun Ley Vince Cable Lib Dem 2.45 0
World at One 21.08.09 Shaun Ley Tam Dalyell Labour 2.58 0
World Tonight 12.08.09 Robin Lustig Ieuan Wyn Jones Plaid Cymru 2.42 0
Today 5.8.09 Jim Naughtie Tim Yeo Conservative 2.37 0
World at One 13.08.09 Martha Kearney Christine Graham SNP 1.49 0
Newsnight 4.8.09 Kirsty Wark Philip Hammond Conservative 2.44 0
Today 11.08.09 Jim Naughtie Andrew Dismore Labour 3.22 0
Today 13.08.09 Jim Naughtie Lynne Featherstone Lib Dem 3.16 0
Today 14.08.09 Evan Davis Vince Cable Lib Dem 1.57 0
World at One 4.8.09 Shaun Ley Jim Cousins Labour 3.32 0
Today 10.8.09 Ed Stourton Tony Wright Labour 2.21 0
PM 8.8.09 Carolyn Quinn Angela Eagle Labour 3.35 0
World Tonight 12.08.09 Robin Lustig David Drew Labour 3.13 0
PM 14.08.09 James Landale Roger Helmer Conservative 3.15 0
PM 11.08.09 Eddie Mair William Hague Conservative 2.57 0
World Tonight 19.08.09 Ritula Shah Stephen Williams Lib Dem 1.23 0
Today 21.08.09 Quentin Sommerville Tony Blair Labour 3.09 0
Today 24.08.09 Evan Davis Louise Ellman Labour 2.56 0
PM 25.08.09 Eddie Mair Tom Watson Labour 2.56 0
World This Weekend 30.08.09 Shaun Ley Alan Campbell Labour 3.17 0
World at One 6.8.09 Shaun Ley Stephen Timms Labour 3.38 0
Today 4.8.09 Sarah Montague Andrew Dismore Labour 4.11 0
PM 14.08.09 James Landale Chris Bryant Labour 2.02 0
Today 24.08.09 Evan Davis Lord Steel Lib Dem 5.45 0
Today 4.8.09 Evan Davis Vince Cable Lib Dem 3.58 0
Today 8.8.09 Ed Stourton Mike Gapes Labour 2.17 0
Today 22.08.09 John Humphrys Ed Davey Lib Dem 1.48 0
Today 24.08.09 Ed Stourton Margo MacDonald Independent 3.47 0
Today 3.8.09 Sarah Montague Phil Willis Lib Dem 3.1 0
Newsnight 12.08.09 Kirsty Wark Vince Cable Lib Dem 2.27 0
Today 17.08.09 Ed Stourton Ming Campbell Lib Dem 1.56 0
World Tonight 17.08.09 Ritula Shah Gisella Stuart Labour 3.12 0
World at One 18.08.09 Martha Kearney Paul Holmes Lib Dem 2.24 0
World Tonight 21.08.09 Robin Lustig Richard Baker Labour 3.11 0
Newsnight 27.08.09 Emily Maitlis Sir Ming Campbell Lib Dem 1.54 0
World at One 3.8.09 Shaun Ley Ian Pearson Labour 4.07 0
World at One 5.8.09 Shaun Ley Vera Baird Labour 3.21 0
Newsnight 14.08.09 Gavin Esler Andy Burnham Labour 2.51 0
Today 13.08.09 Evan Davies Alan Beith Lib Dem 3.23 0
PM 13.08.09 Eddie Mair Vince Cable Lib Dem 3.45 0
World at One 7.8.09 Brian Hanrahan James Arbuthnot Conservative 3.23 0
Westminster Hour 23.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg Pete Wishart SNP 6.08 0
PM 24.08.09 Eddie Mair Lord Fraser Conservative 4.02 0
Newsnight 27.08.09 Emily Maitlis David Willetts Conservative 2.42 0
World This Weekend 2.8.09 Shaun Ley Bill Rammell Labour 4.39 0
Westminster Hour 23.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg Tom Harris Labour 5.29 0
World at One 27.08.09 Martha Kearney Boris Johnson Conservative 3.53 0
World Tonight 27.08.09 Ritula Shah Lord Ashdown Lib Dem 3.59 0
Today 1.8.09 Robert Peston Lord Myners Labour 4.1 0
World Tonight 10.8.09 Ritula Shah Ann Widdecombe Conservative 2.01 0
World Tonight 21.08.09 Robin Lustig Ivan Lewis Labour 3.12 0
World This Weekend 30.08.09 Shaun Ley Jack Straw Labour 5.21 0
World Tonight 13.08.09 Robin Lustig Sir Ming Campbell Lib Dem 3.28 0
World at One 13.08.09 Martha Kearney Sir Patrick Cormack Conservative 3.35 0
Today 11.08.09 Jim Naughtie Ivan Lewis Labour 2.29 0
PM 14.08.09 James Landale Lord West Goat 4.32 0
Today 11.08.09 Ed Stourton Lynne Featherstone Lib Dem 3.22 0
Westminster Hour 23.08.09 Laura Kuenssberg David Mundell Conservative 4.22 0
World at One 28.08.09 Shaun Ley Frank Field Labour 2.28 0
Today 10.8.09 Jim Naughtie Kim Howell Labour 3.59 0
World at One 4.8.09 Shaun Ley Frank Field Labour 3.47 0
Today 6.8.09 Jim Naughtie Quentin Davies Labour 6.35 0
Today 26.08.09 Evan Davis John Prescott Labour 3.37 0
Some surprises at the top, few surprises at the bottom!!
******************************************
***************************APPENDIX
******************************************
Just to make this post even longer...!!!
I thought, taking the excellent advice of John Horne Tooke, that I might add a not-so-little appendix to the main list here. It's the same list again but with some added details. (To have merged them would have made them hard to read, as each entry would have been broken onto two lines of Blogger space.)
John Horne Tooke wanted to know what were the topics of each interview, so as to set them in context.
&
You can now cross-reference between the two lists to your heart's content! You may (if you so chose) find out, say, what the topic was that led Eddie Mair to savage the useful, evasive Labour minister Diana Johnson or what the subject was of Evan Davis's free ride for John Prescott.
This new list is ALMOST complete (sorry about the gaps!).
4.8.09 Diana Johnson 2.3 exam results
25.08.09 Tessa Jowell 1.7 megrahi
17.08.09 Vince Cable 1.6 bankers' bonuses
20.08.09 Kenny MacAskill 1.6 megrahi
14.08.09 Timothy Kirkhope 1.4 hannan & NHS
13.08.09 Daniel Kawczynski 1.4 megrahi
13.08.09 Ann Keen 1.3 nhs v american health care
6.8.09 Edwina Currie 1.2 womens' issues
6.8.09 Grant Shapps 1.2 ivf figures
9.8.09 Andrew Lansley 1.2 health & spending
10.08.09 Hilary Benn 1.2 food security
11.08.09 George Osborne 1.2 tory cuts
20.08.09 Kenny MacAskill 1.1 megrahi
16.08.09 Michael Gove 1.1 schools, hannan & NHS
27.08.09 Nick Gibb 1 exams
4.8.09 Philip Hammond 1 economy
21.08.09 Alex Salmond 1 megrahi
2.8.09 Vince Cable 1 public spending
4.8.09 Ivan Lewis 1 torture
28.08.09 Alex Salmond 1 megrahi
27.08.09 David Willetts 1 education
20.08.09 Alistair Darling 1 banker's pay
21.08.09 David Miliband 0.9 megrahi & afghanistan
12.08.09 Ed Vaizey 0.9 library closures
14.08.09 Andrew Lansley 0.9 hannan & NHS/duncan/mps pay
27.08.09 Vernon Coaker 0.9 exams
22.08.09 David Lidington 0.9 megrahi
12.08.09 Angela Eagle 0.9 q.e. & unemployment
16.08.09 Bob Ainsworth 0.9 afghanistan
24.08.09 Nick Clegg 0.9 megrahi
14.08.09 Andy Burnham 0.9 hannan & NHS
18.08.09 Alistair Darling 0.9 price index/neets
19.08.09 Douglas Alexander 0.9 afghanistan
20.08.09 Lord Baker 0.9 a-levels
2.8.09 Janet Anderson 0.8 political panel
29.08.09 Gerald Howarth 0.8 afghanistan
14.08.09 Andrew Lansley 0.8 hannan & NHS
2.8.09 David Cameron 0.8 Tory cuts
11.08.09 Ivan Lewis 0.8 burma
30.08.09 Alex Salmond 0.8 megrahi
20.08.09 David Lammy 0.8 university intakes
9.8.09 Alison Seabeck 0.8 politics panel
12.08.09 Peter Mandelson 0.8 economy
11.08.09 Lord Mandelson 0.7 phoenix & the sfo
17.08.09 Lord Adonis 0.7 'drug driving'
28.08.09 Gisella Stuart 0.7 housing benefit
2.8.09 Harriet Harman 0.7 women/various
19.08.09 Douglas Alexander 0.7 afghanistan
17.08.09 Ed Davey 0.6 'baghram 2'/reprieve
21.08.09 Iain Gray 0.6 megrahi
30.08.09 Nigel Farage 0.6 politics panel
3.8.09 Phil Woolas 0.6
10.8.09 Steve O'Brien 0.6 medical records
12.08.09 John Redwood 0.6 q.e. & unemployment
17.08.09 Richard Baker 0.6 megrahi
23.08.09 Alex Salmond 0.6 megrahi
19.08.09 Roger Berry 0.6 UK arms sales
28.08.09 Sir Malcolm Rifkind 0.6 general dannatt
17.08.09 Murad Qureshi 0.5 US embassy/congestion charge
21.08.09 George Kerevan 0.5 megrahi
3.8.09 Vince Cable 0.5 banking
22.08.09 Mike Gapes 0.5 megrahi
27.08.09 Phil Woolas 0.5 immigration
16.08.09 Janet Anderson 0.5 politics panel
2.8.09 Evan Harris 0.5 politics panel
25.08.09 Denis MacShane 0.5 UK contributions to EU
27.08.09 David Laws 0.5 education
28.08.09 Lord Bill McKenzie 0.4 housing benefit
12.08.09 Lord Layard 0.4 unemployment
3.8.09 John McFall 0.4 banking
17.08.09 Christine Graham 0.4 megrahi
7.8.09 Gisella Stuart 0.4 labour's leaders
31.08.09 Nicola Sturgeon 0.4 megrahi
11.08.09 Hanzala Malik 0.4 visas for visiting pakistanis
5.8.09 Christine Graham 0.4 megrahi
10.8.09 Jane Davidson 0.4 carrier bag charges
17.08.09 John Battle 0.4 high pay commission
30.08.09 Charles Tannock 0.4 politics panel
9.8.09 Dan Hannan 0.4 politics panel
9.8.09 Evan Harris 0.4 politics panel
10.08.09 Lynne Featherstone 0.3 the killers of baby peter
27.08.09 Vernon Coaker 0.3 education
9.8.09 Hilary Benn 0.3 food revolution
25.08.09 John Redwood 0.3 UK contributions to EU
5.8.09 Malcolm Wicks 0.3 energy security
8.8.09 John McFall 0.3 finance
3.8.09 Gerald Howarth 0.3
16.08.09 Caroline Flint 0.3 paper review
17.08.09 Bob Ainsworth 0.3 afghanistan
16.08.09 Ed Vaizey 0.2 politics panel
19.08.09 Christine Graham 0.2 megrahi
14.08.09 Jim Fitzpatrick 0.2 segregated muslim weddings
24.08.09 Alex Salmond 0.2 megrahi
26.08.09 Douglas Alexander 0.2 copenhagen/agw
10.8.09 Hilary Benn 0.2 food revolution
20.08.09 Sir Patrick Cormack 0.2 mps pay & allowances
16.08.09 Evan Harris 0.2 politics panel
30.08.09 Caroline Lucas 0.1 politics panel
11.08.09 Peter Luff 0 phoenix & the sfo
15.08.09 Denis MacShane 0 peter mandelson
21.08.09 Lord Trefgarne 0 megrahi
5.8.09 Vince Cable 0 banking
21.08.09 Tam Dalyell 0 megrahi
12.08.09 Ieuan Wyn Jones 0 Welsh unemployment
5.8.09 Tim Yeo 0 carbon emissions
13.08.09 Christine Graham 0 megrahi
4.8.09 Philip Hammond 0 banking
11.08.09 Andrew Dismore 0 war criminals
13.08.09 Lynne Featherstone 0 women's pay
14.08.09 Vince Cable 0 dance
4.8.09 Jim Cousins 0 banking
10.8.09 Tony Wright 0 whistle-blowing
8.8.09 Angela Eagle 0 pensions
12.08.09 David Drew 0 Welsh unemployment
14.08.09 Roger Helmer 0 hannan & NHS
11.08.09 William Hague 0 burma
19.08.09 Stephen Williams 0 university intakes
21.08.09 Tony Blair 0 china & green technology
24.08.09 Louise Ellman 0 foreign lorries
25.08.09 Tom Watson 0 digital piracy
30.08.09 Alan Campbell 0 binge-drinking
6.8.09 Stephen Timms 0 economy
4.8.09 Andrew Dismore 0 torture
14.08.09 Chris Bryant 0 turks & caicos direct rule
24.08.09 Lord Steel 0 megrahi
4.8.09 Vince Cable 0 banking
8.8.09 Mike Gapes 0
22.08.09 Ed Davey 0 megrahi
24.08.09 Margo MacDonald 0 megrahi
3.8.09 Phil Willis 0
12.08.09 Vince Cable 0 q.e. & unemployment
17.08.09 Ming Campbell 0 miliband/terrorism
17.08.09 Gisella Stuart 0 afghanistan
18.08.09 Paul Holmes 0 fixed penalty notices
21.08.09 Richard Baker 0 megrahi
27.08.09 Sir Ming Campbell 0 afghanistan
3.8.09 Ian Pearson 0
5.8.09 Vera Baird 0 rape
14.08.09 Andy Burnham 0 hannan & NHS
13.08.09 Alan Beith 0 community service
13.08.09 Vince Cable 0 economic recovery
7.8.09 James Arbuthnot 0 defence
23.08.09 Pete Wishart 0 megrahi
24.08.09 Lord Fraser 0 megrahi
27.08.09 David Willetts 0 education
2.8.09 Bill Rammell 0 afghanistan
23.08.09 Tom Harris 0 megrahi
27.08.09 Boris Johnson 0 turner & taxing bankers
27.08.09 Lord Ashdown 0 afghanistan
1.8.09 Lord Myners 0 banking
10.8.09 Ann Widdecombe 0 surveillance soclety
21.08.09 Ivan Lewis 0 israel & palestinians
30.08.09 Jack Straw 0 megrahi
13.08.09 Sir Ming Campbell 0 afghan policy
13.08.09 Sir Patrick Cormack 0 alan duncan's 'rations'
11.08.09 Ivan Lewis 0 burma
14.08.09 Lord West 0 technology & security
11.08.09 Lynne Featherstone 0 baby p.
23.08.09 David Mundell 0 megrahi
28.08.09 Frank Field 0 housing benefit
10.8.09 Kim Howell 0 torture
4.8.09 Frank Field 0 open primaries
6.8.09 Quentin Davies 0 defence
26.08.09 John Prescott 0 copenhagen/agw
This new list is ALMOST complete (sorry about the gaps!).
4.8.09 Diana Johnson 2.3 exam results
25.08.09 Tessa Jowell 1.7 megrahi
17.08.09 Vince Cable 1.6 bankers' bonuses
20.08.09 Kenny MacAskill 1.6 megrahi
14.08.09 Timothy Kirkhope 1.4 hannan & NHS
13.08.09 Daniel Kawczynski 1.4 megrahi
13.08.09 Ann Keen 1.3 nhs v american health care
6.8.09 Edwina Currie 1.2 womens' issues
6.8.09 Grant Shapps 1.2 ivf figures
9.8.09 Andrew Lansley 1.2 health & spending
10.08.09 Hilary Benn 1.2 food security
11.08.09 George Osborne 1.2 tory cuts
20.08.09 Kenny MacAskill 1.1 megrahi
16.08.09 Michael Gove 1.1 schools, hannan & NHS
27.08.09 Nick Gibb 1 exams
4.8.09 Philip Hammond 1 economy
21.08.09 Alex Salmond 1 megrahi
2.8.09 Vince Cable 1 public spending
4.8.09 Ivan Lewis 1 torture
28.08.09 Alex Salmond 1 megrahi
27.08.09 David Willetts 1 education
20.08.09 Alistair Darling 1 banker's pay
21.08.09 David Miliband 0.9 megrahi & afghanistan
12.08.09 Ed Vaizey 0.9 library closures
14.08.09 Andrew Lansley 0.9 hannan & NHS/duncan/mps pay
27.08.09 Vernon Coaker 0.9 exams
22.08.09 David Lidington 0.9 megrahi
12.08.09 Angela Eagle 0.9 q.e. & unemployment
16.08.09 Bob Ainsworth 0.9 afghanistan
24.08.09 Nick Clegg 0.9 megrahi
14.08.09 Andy Burnham 0.9 hannan & NHS
18.08.09 Alistair Darling 0.9 price index/neets
19.08.09 Douglas Alexander 0.9 afghanistan
20.08.09 Lord Baker 0.9 a-levels
2.8.09 Janet Anderson 0.8 political panel
29.08.09 Gerald Howarth 0.8 afghanistan
14.08.09 Andrew Lansley 0.8 hannan & NHS
2.8.09 David Cameron 0.8 Tory cuts
11.08.09 Ivan Lewis 0.8 burma
30.08.09 Alex Salmond 0.8 megrahi
20.08.09 David Lammy 0.8 university intakes
9.8.09 Alison Seabeck 0.8 politics panel
12.08.09 Peter Mandelson 0.8 economy
11.08.09 Lord Mandelson 0.7 phoenix & the sfo
17.08.09 Lord Adonis 0.7 'drug driving'
28.08.09 Gisella Stuart 0.7 housing benefit
2.8.09 Harriet Harman 0.7 women/various
19.08.09 Douglas Alexander 0.7 afghanistan
17.08.09 Ed Davey 0.6 'baghram 2'/reprieve
21.08.09 Iain Gray 0.6 megrahi
30.08.09 Nigel Farage 0.6 politics panel
3.8.09 Phil Woolas 0.6
10.8.09 Steve O'Brien 0.6 medical records
12.08.09 John Redwood 0.6 q.e. & unemployment
17.08.09 Richard Baker 0.6 megrahi
23.08.09 Alex Salmond 0.6 megrahi
19.08.09 Roger Berry 0.6 UK arms sales
28.08.09 Sir Malcolm Rifkind 0.6 general dannatt
17.08.09 Murad Qureshi 0.5 US embassy/congestion charge
21.08.09 George Kerevan 0.5 megrahi
3.8.09 Vince Cable 0.5 banking
22.08.09 Mike Gapes 0.5 megrahi
27.08.09 Phil Woolas 0.5 immigration
16.08.09 Janet Anderson 0.5 politics panel
2.8.09 Evan Harris 0.5 politics panel
25.08.09 Denis MacShane 0.5 UK contributions to EU
27.08.09 David Laws 0.5 education
28.08.09 Lord Bill McKenzie 0.4 housing benefit
12.08.09 Lord Layard 0.4 unemployment
3.8.09 John McFall 0.4 banking
17.08.09 Christine Graham 0.4 megrahi
7.8.09 Gisella Stuart 0.4 labour's leaders
31.08.09 Nicola Sturgeon 0.4 megrahi
11.08.09 Hanzala Malik 0.4 visas for visiting pakistanis
5.8.09 Christine Graham 0.4 megrahi
10.8.09 Jane Davidson 0.4 carrier bag charges
17.08.09 John Battle 0.4 high pay commission
30.08.09 Charles Tannock 0.4 politics panel
9.8.09 Dan Hannan 0.4 politics panel
9.8.09 Evan Harris 0.4 politics panel
10.08.09 Lynne Featherstone 0.3 the killers of baby peter
27.08.09 Vernon Coaker 0.3 education
9.8.09 Hilary Benn 0.3 food revolution
25.08.09 John Redwood 0.3 UK contributions to EU
5.8.09 Malcolm Wicks 0.3 energy security
8.8.09 John McFall 0.3 finance
3.8.09 Gerald Howarth 0.3
16.08.09 Caroline Flint 0.3 paper review
17.08.09 Bob Ainsworth 0.3 afghanistan
16.08.09 Ed Vaizey 0.2 politics panel
19.08.09 Christine Graham 0.2 megrahi
14.08.09 Jim Fitzpatrick 0.2 segregated muslim weddings
24.08.09 Alex Salmond 0.2 megrahi
26.08.09 Douglas Alexander 0.2 copenhagen/agw
10.8.09 Hilary Benn 0.2 food revolution
20.08.09 Sir Patrick Cormack 0.2 mps pay & allowances
16.08.09 Evan Harris 0.2 politics panel
30.08.09 Caroline Lucas 0.1 politics panel
11.08.09 Peter Luff 0 phoenix & the sfo
15.08.09 Denis MacShane 0 peter mandelson
21.08.09 Lord Trefgarne 0 megrahi
5.8.09 Vince Cable 0 banking
21.08.09 Tam Dalyell 0 megrahi
12.08.09 Ieuan Wyn Jones 0 Welsh unemployment
5.8.09 Tim Yeo 0 carbon emissions
13.08.09 Christine Graham 0 megrahi
4.8.09 Philip Hammond 0 banking
11.08.09 Andrew Dismore 0 war criminals
13.08.09 Lynne Featherstone 0 women's pay
14.08.09 Vince Cable 0 dance
4.8.09 Jim Cousins 0 banking
10.8.09 Tony Wright 0 whistle-blowing
8.8.09 Angela Eagle 0 pensions
12.08.09 David Drew 0 Welsh unemployment
14.08.09 Roger Helmer 0 hannan & NHS
11.08.09 William Hague 0 burma
19.08.09 Stephen Williams 0 university intakes
21.08.09 Tony Blair 0 china & green technology
24.08.09 Louise Ellman 0 foreign lorries
25.08.09 Tom Watson 0 digital piracy
30.08.09 Alan Campbell 0 binge-drinking
6.8.09 Stephen Timms 0 economy
4.8.09 Andrew Dismore 0 torture
14.08.09 Chris Bryant 0 turks & caicos direct rule
24.08.09 Lord Steel 0 megrahi
4.8.09 Vince Cable 0 banking
8.8.09 Mike Gapes 0
22.08.09 Ed Davey 0 megrahi
24.08.09 Margo MacDonald 0 megrahi
3.8.09 Phil Willis 0
12.08.09 Vince Cable 0 q.e. & unemployment
17.08.09 Ming Campbell 0 miliband/terrorism
17.08.09 Gisella Stuart 0 afghanistan
18.08.09 Paul Holmes 0 fixed penalty notices
21.08.09 Richard Baker 0 megrahi
27.08.09 Sir Ming Campbell 0 afghanistan
3.8.09 Ian Pearson 0
5.8.09 Vera Baird 0 rape
14.08.09 Andy Burnham 0 hannan & NHS
13.08.09 Alan Beith 0 community service
13.08.09 Vince Cable 0 economic recovery
7.8.09 James Arbuthnot 0 defence
23.08.09 Pete Wishart 0 megrahi
24.08.09 Lord Fraser 0 megrahi
27.08.09 David Willetts 0 education
2.8.09 Bill Rammell 0 afghanistan
23.08.09 Tom Harris 0 megrahi
27.08.09 Boris Johnson 0 turner & taxing bankers
27.08.09 Lord Ashdown 0 afghanistan
1.8.09 Lord Myners 0 banking
10.8.09 Ann Widdecombe 0 surveillance soclety
21.08.09 Ivan Lewis 0 israel & palestinians
30.08.09 Jack Straw 0 megrahi
13.08.09 Sir Ming Campbell 0 afghan policy
13.08.09 Sir Patrick Cormack 0 alan duncan's 'rations'
11.08.09 Ivan Lewis 0 burma
14.08.09 Lord West 0 technology & security
11.08.09 Lynne Featherstone 0 baby p.
23.08.09 David Mundell 0 megrahi
28.08.09 Frank Field 0 housing benefit
10.8.09 Kim Howell 0 torture
4.8.09 Frank Field 0 open primaries
6.8.09 Quentin Davies 0 defence
26.08.09 John Prescott 0 copenhagen/agw
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