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Hello and welcome to Newswatch. Last week's elections brought a UKIP | :00:13. | :00:18. | |
political earthquake to Britain, or did they? If they did, was the BBC | :00:19. | :00:25. | |
partly responsible? The Corporation's political editor | :00:26. | :00:28. | |
response to charges that their success was overhyped and discusses | :00:29. | :00:31. | |
his questioning of Nigel Farage during the election campaign. | :00:32. | :00:41. | |
As the results of the English local elections and those for the European | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
Parliament came in, one man's smiling face dominated television | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
screens. Much of the talk was about UKIP and Nigel Farage, as it had | :00:50. | :00:56. | |
been during the campaign. Even when he was speaking to one set of | :00:57. | :00:59. | |
cameras, the UKIP leader had to deal with a question thrown at him by a | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
nearby Nick Robinson. Viewers complained about this at the time, | :01:04. | :01:05. | |
as they did when the BBC's political complained about this at the time, | :01:06. | :01:10. | |
as they did when the editor questioned him about employing his | :01:11. | :01:15. | |
German wife as a secretary? Nobody else could do that job. No British | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
person could work for you as your secretary? You do not think anybody | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
capable is of doing that job? And again when they discussed concerns | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
people might have if a group of Romanians moved in next door. What | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
if Jamaica Inn is moved next door? No. Nigerians? | :01:34. | :02:02. | |
Projected national shared... Perhaps because of the scrutiny Nigel Farage | :02:03. | :02:08. | |
and his party were put under, they did well in the local elections in | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
England, but how well? David Graves looked closely at the numbers. The | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
BBC have talked about a surge, a massive increase, huge success, UKIP | :02:19. | :02:23. | |
the story of the day. To put it in context, look at the results. | :02:24. | :02:32. | |
Labour, 2100 seats. United Kingdom Independence party, at the most | :02:33. | :02:39. | |
fourth place, 163 seats. Try and reconcile that with BBC coverage. It | :02:40. | :02:50. | |
does not make sense. When the European results came through, it | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
was clear that UKIP at won. For some viewers, the BBC had played a part | :02:55. | :02:57. | |
in that victory. The BBC's political editor, Nick | :02:58. | :03:41. | |
Robinson, joins us down the line. Let's start with the election | :03:42. | :03:43. | |
campaign, were your interviews with Nigel Farage to personal? I don't | :03:44. | :03:52. | |
think they were. I did take a view that Nigel Farage was likely to be | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
at the centre of this election campaign, that it was widely | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
predicted by all parties that UKIP could win the European elections, | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
and that Nigel Farage had done a lot of clips for news programmes, | :04:04. | :04:06. | |
usually with a pint in his hand and a smile on his face, usually | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
inviting him to comment on others, rather than being interrogated on | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
his own position. I thought it was right to do that. It is clear that | :04:16. | :04:20. | |
Nigel Farage divides viewers and voters, and we have had complaints | :04:21. | :04:24. | |
from both sides, but on the local elections, the charge is that the | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
BBC over reported, exaggerated how successful UKIP had been. They only | :04:29. | :04:37. | |
got 163 seats, compared to more than 2004 Labour, and their share of the | :04:38. | :04:42. | |
vote went down. I think Labour supporters were deeply frustrated | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
that they had many gains, the most of councils and councillors and | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
bodes. I get these messages myself, they feel that was not properly | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
represented. We did report that, although it is worth remembering | :04:56. | :04:58. | |
that the results got much better into Friday than they were overnight | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
Thursday night and into Friday morning. So the picture on Friday | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
night was much better and healthier for Labour than it had been the | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
night before, and at the time people were switching on their radios or | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
televisions, or downloading things on the internet first thing on | :05:16. | :05:18. | |
Friday morning. The point we were making again and again was to report | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
the facts, you always got to gain this and you gave that, but also we | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
are there to add analysis and interpretation. `` who gained this | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
and who gained that. The people who study elections, Professor John | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
Curtice, Peter Kellner, they all agreed that these results were not | :05:40. | :05:42. | |
good enough for Labour to be confident of winning the next | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
election. They only had a lead of about 1% over the Conservatives. | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
They were not as good as other positions had done at a similar time | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
in this sort of situation before an election. UKIP, on the other hand, | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
had made a breakthrough, no longer just a European party, they were | :06:00. | :06:06. | |
finding a base in local councils not just in the South against the | :06:07. | :06:08. | |
Tories, but in the North against Labour, establishing themselves as | :06:09. | :06:10. | |
the fourth party of English politics. They went on to do it in | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
British politics at the Euro elections, but we were right to | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
point that out. In the European elections, UKIP clearly won, but | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
viewers are concerned that the BBC coverage made that a self`fulfilling | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
prophecy, almost a cheerleader for UKIP. I know there is that feeling, | :06:29. | :06:34. | |
but I think it is wrong. Why do I think it is wrong? Because the big | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
rise in UKIP's poll ratings happened before this campaign, long before Mr | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
Farage was getting onto the television day in and day out. There | :06:43. | :06:48. | |
had already been a surge, one year ago they had a record`breaking | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
performance at the local council, county council elections last May. | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
And therefore you cannot make that link between recent coverage and his | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
performance. We got the same complaints over last year's local | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
elections, and many people feel the BBC has been building up UKIP for | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
over a year. The BBC has to try to give their coverage to politicians, | :07:13. | :07:15. | |
and in case people wonder how that is done, it is by studying how | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
parties have performed in the past, how many seats they have got, for | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
example, how they did in previous elections. We also look at their | :07:25. | :07:27. | |
current poll ratings, and decisions are made not by the likes of me all | :07:28. | :07:38. | |
by my editors, but we have a chief political adviser whose job it is to | :07:39. | :07:40. | |
advise the regulators, the BBC Trust, who makes a judgment about | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
share of coverage. His decision, which was echoed in Tiley by ITV and | :07:44. | :07:50. | |
Channel 4 and Sky, was that UKIP should get equal coverage to the big | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
three parties in the European elections. `` entirely. It was a | :07:55. | :08:00. | |
national vote, they performed very well in 2009, they were performing, | :08:01. | :08:04. | |
in the opinion polls, in a way that suggested they may come first, and | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
therefore a decision was made by our regulators that my being fair and | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
balanced, that meant giving UKIP same level of coverage as the other | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
parties. BBC News analysis presented both the euro and local boats as the | :08:20. | :08:22. | |
other parties. BBC News analysis presented both the euro and. `` | :08:23. | :08:33. | |
votes. There was very little on the issues, surely that is failing to do | :08:34. | :08:40. | |
the job. If you listen to your local radio station, you will see stories | :08:41. | :08:50. | |
about local councils, reported in terms of that council, the decisions | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
they are taking. It is not realistic that at a national level we can do | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
that, so at the elections we see them through a prism of what it | :09:01. | :09:03. | |
means for a general election, and there is a long history of local | :09:04. | :09:07. | |
elections being a pretty good guide as to what will happen. On the | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
European Parliament, I think that is a fair criticism, there was | :09:12. | :09:18. | |
certainly coverage around, and it is fair criticism that we need to | :09:19. | :09:21. | |
constantly think about how we explain to people what a member of | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
the European Parliament does, and what the differences are between | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
people who represent one party and represent another. Nick Robinson, | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
thank you. Just time for a couple of other | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
items on BBC News this week which have caught your attention. Question | :09:41. | :09:44. | |
Time certainly did that, the panel included Piers Morgan and footballer | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
Jo Wheeler Barton, who put it to Louise Bours that the should not be | :09:49. | :09:54. | |
pleased with their performance. All you represent is the best of a bad | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
bunch. If I am somewhere and there was four really ugly girls, I am | :10:00. | :10:06. | |
thinking... Oh dear, oh dear! That is all you are to us. | :10:07. | :10:25. | |
Finally, some or positive feedback, Borrell Williams was interviewed on | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
Breakfast, and his hit signal Most viewers applauded the | :10:31. | :11:01. | |
enthusiasm and bravery that went into that. | :11:02. | :11:14. | |
Do let us know what on BBC News makes you happy or unhappy! That is | :11:15. | :11:21. | |
all for this week, but call us with your views. We are on Twitter, and | :11:22. | :11:32. | |
if you ever miss our programme on telly, you can catch up on the | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
website. We will be back to hear your thoughts about BBC News | :11:39. | :11:39. | |
coverage again next week. Goodbye. Hopefully the weather will make you | :11:40. | :11:52. | |
happy this weekend, because there will be a lot of dry weather out | :11:53. | :11:54. |