:00:27. > :00:35.Welcome to Newswatch mac. MPs return to Parliament and straight
:00:35. > :00:38.into a classic scandal story. Liam Fox has resigned. It comes after a
:00:38. > :00:44.week of speculation about his relationship with his friend, Adam
:00:44. > :00:47.Werritty. In his resignation letter key said he had mistakenly allowed
:00:47. > :00:52.the distinction between his personal interest and his
:00:52. > :00:58.government activity to become bored. The consequences of this have
:00:58. > :01:08.become clear in recent days. I am very sorry for this. One dealer
:01:08. > :01:13.
:01:13. > :01:23.Cynicism is a charge that has been levelled at the BBC a few times in
:01:23. > :01:24.
:01:24. > :01:29.the past few weeks. Not just by a You are losing elections across the
:01:29. > :01:39.piece. You are at record lows. You think that in a few years' time
:01:39. > :01:42.
:01:42. > :01:46.that will change. Why is that not wishful thinking? I think you
:01:46. > :01:52.sometimes come to our conference hoping that we will all be
:01:52. > :01:57.miserable, defeated and afflicted. By it was Lynne Featherstone. Other
:01:57. > :02:02.Liberal Democrats agreed with her. Jeremy Paxman gathered a group of
:02:02. > :02:08.them together for a debate on Newsnight. My question is to the
:02:08. > :02:12.most powerful unelected and unaccountable person's here, Jeremy.
:02:12. > :02:16.Do you genuinely believe that a simplistic, confrontational and
:02:16. > :02:21.simplistic approach to the scrutiny of government provides the public
:02:21. > :02:25.with a transparent window on the nature of the mature debate within
:02:25. > :02:32.the party and the Government on the serious complex issues that we face
:02:32. > :02:38.today? APPLAUSE I will tell you one big
:02:38. > :02:48.difference, I am not asking the public for their votes. One
:02:48. > :02:48.
:02:48. > :03:48.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 60 seconds
:03:48. > :03:58.-- are the charges of cynicism and Are these charges fair? Joining me
:03:58. > :03:59.
:03:59. > :04:03.to answer that is Sue Inglish, the BBC's Head of political programmes.
:04:03. > :04:08.The theme running through all of this debate seems to be that the
:04:08. > :04:15.coverage is unremitting plane negative. Is there any truth in
:04:15. > :04:20.this? It is a perfectly reasonable question to ask and I am happy to
:04:20. > :04:27.answer it. To start off with, both of the clubs that you played are
:04:27. > :04:34.both worth watching again. -- clubs. It was perfectly legitimate for
:04:34. > :04:38.James to ask that question. When we did that report, when that exchange
:04:38. > :04:43.with Lynne Featherstone was featured, that was part of an eight
:04:43. > :04:48.minute belt on the Six o'clock News. The first part of that was all
:04:48. > :04:55.about the state of the economy. I don't think the retort was negative.
:04:55. > :04:59.He did ask legitimate questions about the party. On Jeremy Paxman
:04:59. > :05:04.and his encounter with the Liberal Democrat delegate, I loved that
:05:04. > :05:09.encounter and I think everyone did. Jeremy is Jeremy. He is provocative.
:05:09. > :05:14.He tried to get people to react. That certainly got a reaction from
:05:14. > :05:18.the audience. People can be a bit po-faced about this. He did not
:05:18. > :05:23.show that, but he went on to introduce Peter Bone, a
:05:23. > :05:31.Conservative MP, someone who had come to the Liberal Democrat
:05:31. > :05:36.Conference, and the audience booed him. In terms of mature debate, we
:05:36. > :05:46.can get a bit too serious. Another point that the viewers make is that
:05:46. > :05:47.
:05:47. > :05:52.all reporters love to foment debate. The following argument is that the
:05:52. > :05:59.affairs of Theresa May's cat may have been entertaining but it
:05:59. > :06:03.obscured other issues. I would absolutely dispute that we focused
:06:03. > :06:08.on all of the disputes. There were a number of serious policies that
:06:08. > :06:13.we covered. The economy overshadowed nearly all of the
:06:13. > :06:19.conferences. However, I don't think you can dispute that there is a
:06:19. > :06:24.debate about human rights legislation that is absolutely
:06:24. > :06:28.exemplified by the discussion over the issue that the cat and what
:06:28. > :06:34.role it had or had not played in the decision to allow somebody to
:06:34. > :06:38.stay in this country. Last week we heard about the cuts the BBC is
:06:38. > :06:43.facing. In terms of the party conferences, budgets have been cut
:06:43. > :06:47.in half. Programmes like Newsnight will not be able to broadcast live
:06:47. > :06:52.from the conferences. Argue concerned at party conferences are
:06:52. > :06:56.being downplayed in the future by the BBC? Let's get this clear, what
:06:57. > :07:01.we have said is that we will continue to do the range of news
:07:01. > :07:06.coverage that we have always done from party conferences. There will
:07:06. > :07:10.still be full coverage on BBC Parliament. They will be news
:07:10. > :07:14.coverage on bulletins. One of the things that cost a lot of money is
:07:14. > :07:18.providing the technical infastructure and people to allow a
:07:18. > :07:21.big programmes to be broadcast, particularly to present from the
:07:21. > :07:26.conferences. We are not saying that we cannot broadcast from the
:07:26. > :07:30.conferences, the coverage will be available, what we are saying is
:07:30. > :07:33.that we can save significant amounts of money by reducing the
:07:33. > :07:38.facilities we offer for programmes to present from there. That does
:07:38. > :07:44.not mean we will not cover the conferences and it does not mean we
:07:44. > :07:47.are downgrading them in any way. All week, BBC bulletins have been
:07:47. > :07:53.reporting the trial of Vincent Tabak who admits to the
:07:53. > :07:57.manslaughter of Joanna Yeates but denies her murder. The jury was led
:07:57. > :08:02.into the garden flat where Jo Yeates lived and fear it is claimed
:08:02. > :08:07.she was murdered. Many things left just as they were last December
:08:07. > :08:17.when she was killed one week before Christmas. One reviewer was in
:08:17. > :08:27.
:08:27. > :08:30.Last Saturday was a big day for British and Irish rugby fans when
:08:30. > :08:40.England, Ireland and Wales all played in the quarter-finals.
:08:40. > :08:40.
:08:40. > :09:27.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 60 seconds
:09:27. > :09:32.Although the latter won and the Cymru am byth, for the uninitiated,
:09:32. > :09:36.means of whales forever. We thought we would start an
:09:36. > :09:42.occasional slot in which viewers can discuss what they think is
:09:42. > :09:51.money being wasted. Maybe we will pass them on to the women just
:09:51. > :09:58.appointed as the transformation engagement dash mac. There was a
:09:58. > :10:05.feature about the so-called comedy carpet in Blackpool. It paid
:10:06. > :10:15.tribute to hundreds of famous comedians. It was it on the news.
:10:16. > :10:23.
:10:23. > :10:27.It was then taken over by a Please give was your own examples
:10:27. > :10:32.together with comments on what you have seen on the news or on
:10:32. > :10:39.Newswatch. Last week, be featured criticism often interviewed Jeremy
:10:39. > :10:44.Paxman did that Boris Johnson. Here is another taste of it. What is the
:10:44. > :10:49.relationship between you and David Cameron Gresham what I am the Mayor