:00:20. > :00:24.of the hour, but now it is time for Welcome to Newswatch. On this
:00:24. > :00:28.week's programme, should these three candidates have got more of a
:00:28. > :00:35.look-in during coverage of the contest to be Mayor of London?
:00:35. > :00:39.Elections have been dominating the news. Last weekend sort of the new
:00:39. > :00:43.French president, while the Greeks have also cast votes for a new
:00:43. > :00:49.government. Before that there were local and may well elections in
:00:49. > :00:54.England, Scotland and Wales. The results were brought to rise by
:00:54. > :00:58.David Dimbleby in a marathon overnight programme. We are looking
:00:58. > :01:08.at how people have voted in the English and Welsh... But a couple
:01:08. > :01:15.
:01:15. > :01:24.of hours in, we were contacted with Other complaints were about that
:01:24. > :01:29.Let me show you our key ward exercise and we would try and break
:01:29. > :01:35.it down. We are looking first at key ward changed since it 2008.
:01:35. > :01:45.This is the overall figure. Does that remind you of anything?
:01:45. > :02:15.
:02:15. > :02:20.This is the overall figure here, and I will give it to you. I see
:02:20. > :02:25.what you mean, Christine! Protests started well before last Thursday,
:02:25. > :02:29.and they centred on the highly sensitive issue of how airtime
:02:29. > :02:33.should be allocated to the various parties and candidates. The crucial
:02:33. > :02:40.theme is to get police officers out there where the parties want to see
:02:40. > :02:44.them. A debate on BBC London during the campaign. But only four of the
:02:44. > :02:47.seven candidates were invited to take part. Later, one of the
:02:47. > :02:51.missing candidates made their objections clear. It would have
:02:51. > :03:01.been nice if I had been on the main debate tonight. We should all have
:03:01. > :03:35.
:03:35. > :03:43.been given a say. Her complaint was I think what is going to become
:03:43. > :03:46.known as the independent candidate problem, they ended up good and
:03:46. > :03:50.almost at the same amount of votes as the Liberal-Democrat and the
:03:50. > :03:54.Green Party candidates, with hardly any airtime, she was effectively
:03:54. > :03:58.saying, I am serious, I have a serious record in the Civil Service,
:03:58. > :04:02.I have well worked-out ideas, why shouldn't I have the chance to have
:04:03. > :04:09.those presented to viewers and tested in front of viewers in the
:04:09. > :04:13.same way as other candidates? with the BNP and UKIP candidates,
:04:13. > :04:19.she was also excluded from Newsnight's debate over who should
:04:19. > :04:26.become the Mayor of London. So why didn't the smaller parties receive
:04:26. > :04:30.equal representation to the larger ones? The answer is that the BBC
:04:30. > :04:36.allocates airtime mainly according to previous electoral success. But
:04:36. > :04:41.some feel there is an need for both stricter laws governing this and
:04:41. > :04:45.for an update of the BBC regulations. The BBC rules of
:04:45. > :04:50.basically adaptations of those rules in an era long gone, when
:04:50. > :04:57.British politics was completely dominated by the two main parties,
:04:57. > :05:03.looking back to the 1950s. Labour and Conservative candidates mop up
:05:03. > :05:08.19% of all the votes then. It wasn't an issue. But at the last
:05:08. > :05:17.general election, more than a third of the public voted for parties
:05:17. > :05:21.other than Labour and Conservative. 10% voted for smaller parties. We
:05:21. > :05:25.also found recently in the by- election in Bradford, in which
:05:25. > :05:31.George Galloway one, here was a situation which could become
:05:31. > :05:36.increasingly common, where people who were traditionally Labour, were
:05:36. > :05:39.dissatisfied with Labour, but didn't want to buy it for the
:05:40. > :05:43.traditional parties, and sought another outlet for their protests.
:05:43. > :05:49.There is clearly a growing appetite for the increasing numbers of
:05:49. > :05:55.voters to look at the non- traditional, mainstream parties,
:05:55. > :05:59.and this needs to be reflected in the BBC's coverage. It is a trend
:05:59. > :06:04.that has been seen recently across Europe, with smaller parties taking
:06:04. > :06:10.a greater share of the vote, from Greece to France. Closer to home,
:06:10. > :06:15.is it time the BBC revisited its rules governing election coverage?
:06:15. > :06:20.Our chief political adviser joins me now. Is your system out of date
:06:20. > :06:24.and too rigid? One of the misunderstandings is we have a
:06:24. > :06:29.single set of rules call elections, that is not true. We drafter new
:06:29. > :06:33.guidelines before each election, we let people comment on that, and it
:06:33. > :06:42.is specific to the context of that election. These guidelines were
:06:42. > :06:47.drawn up for the last elections. What do you have to say about this
:06:47. > :06:52.problem, an independent not getting any airtime because it they were an
:06:52. > :06:57.independent. The system has been described as ridiculously skewed
:06:57. > :07:01.towards the status quo, and very unfair. Actually, all the candlelit
:07:01. > :07:05.in the mayoral election got enormous amounts of coverage -- the
:07:05. > :07:11.candidate. There were only seven, they all got more coverage than
:07:11. > :07:15.they ever have before. There were three TV interviews, six or radio
:07:15. > :07:20.interviews, all the other candidates got a lot of coverage,
:07:20. > :07:25.so the idea that somehow they were excluded is simply not true. And it
:07:25. > :07:30.there were only four participant in the TV debate, that surely is not
:07:30. > :07:32.fair? One of the things you have got to remember in elections is we
:07:32. > :07:38.have to scrutinise not only the incumbent but the people who might
:07:38. > :07:42.find themselves the Mayor for the next four years, so there is always
:07:42. > :07:46.a balance to be struck between holding those politicians to
:07:46. > :07:51.account and perhaps having a debate where lots and lots of voices are
:07:51. > :07:55.coming in, that perhaps being less helpful to the electorate. There is
:07:55. > :07:59.a bit of a chicken and egg situation for an independent, who
:07:59. > :08:05.may be a valid and qualified person, but because they are not a party,
:08:05. > :08:07.because they didn't stand at the last election, inevitably they are
:08:07. > :08:14.disadvantaged in terms of party political broadcast and appearing
:08:14. > :08:16.in formal debates like on Newsnight. You have got to make an editorial
:08:16. > :08:21.judgement about the level of coverage people get, and the place
:08:21. > :08:24.to start with that is how people vote in real elections. Clearly,
:08:24. > :08:30.parties that have got a track record should get some coverage,
:08:30. > :08:33.but that is not the only criteria. If you are a new candidate or a new
:08:33. > :08:38.party, that doesn't apply, so we look at current electoral support,
:08:38. > :08:43.we get all sorts of things to judge what sort of level. Opinion polls
:08:43. > :08:47.can play a big part in that. We made those judgments, I think we
:08:47. > :08:51.got the right level of coverage for top do you think the BBC is
:08:51. > :08:55.adequately reflecting what many people think are significant
:08:55. > :08:59.changes to the political landscape, not just in the UK but across
:08:59. > :09:05.Europe? Fragmentation of the established party system, new
:09:05. > :09:10.parties, are you not off the pace? We look at each election separately.
:09:10. > :09:15.In the European elections, way UKIP have a good track record, they get
:09:15. > :09:22.the same level of coverage as the main parties. But this may roll
:09:22. > :09:27.election, 85% of the people voting last week, voted Labour or
:09:27. > :09:31.Conservative. So the idea that the boat so suddenly disappearing in
:09:31. > :09:38.lots of new directions in all elections isn't true, you have to
:09:38. > :09:41.look at each one separately. Thank you. Elsewhere we watched the
:09:41. > :09:45.appalling news of the nine men accused of sexually exploiting
:09:45. > :09:55.teenage girls in Rochdale. The way the men were described was a
:09:55. > :10:17.
:10:17. > :10:21.Thursday saw the latest stage in the build-up to this summer's big
:10:21. > :10:31.sporting event, with the lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece.
:10:31. > :10:42.