:00:12. > :00:19.Hello, welcome to Newswatch. Last week's elections brought a UKIP
:00:20. > :00:26.political earthquake to Britain, or did they? And if they did, was the
:00:27. > :00:32.BBC partly responsible? We respond to charges that UKIP's success was
:00:33. > :00:39.overhyped and discuss questioning of Nigel Farage during the election
:00:40. > :00:43.campaign. As the results of the English local
:00:44. > :00:47.elections and those for the European Parliament came in, one man's
:00:48. > :00:51.smiling face dominated our television screens. Much of the talk
:00:52. > :00:56.was about UKIP and Nigel Farage as it had been during the election
:00:57. > :01:01.campaign. The UN did not take... Even when he was speaking to one set
:01:02. > :01:06.of cameras, UKIP leader had to do their questions thrown at him by a
:01:07. > :01:11.nearby Nick Robinson. People wanted to complain about this at the time,
:01:12. > :01:18.as they did about questions about employing his German life as a
:01:19. > :01:24.secretary. `` wife. Nobody else can do that job. No British person? You
:01:25. > :01:28.do not think anyone is capable of doing that job? And again when the
:01:29. > :01:40.same at Mac discussed concerns about a group of Romanians living in next
:01:41. > :02:03.door. Nigerians? No. Irish? These were the concerns some felt.
:02:04. > :02:10.Despite or perhaps because of the scrutiny Nigel Farage and his party
:02:11. > :02:19.were put under, they did well in last week's local elections. But how
:02:20. > :02:22.well? The BBC have talked about the search and massive increases, huge
:02:23. > :02:38.successes, UKIP are the story of the day. Do you support that in context?
:02:39. > :02:43.Look at the result. It demonstrable fourth`place. Try and reconcile that
:02:44. > :02:50.with BBC coverage. It does not make sense. With the European election
:02:51. > :02:55.results coming in on Sunday night, it was clear that here UKIP had
:02:56. > :03:37.won. Sought some viewers, the BBC had played a part in this victory.
:03:38. > :03:43.The BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, joins us now. Let us start
:03:44. > :03:48.with the election campaign, with your interviews with Nigel Farage
:03:49. > :03:53.too personal, the aggressive? I do not think they were too personal or
:03:54. > :03:57.aggressive. I did take a view that Nigel Farage was likely to be at the
:03:58. > :04:02.centre of this election campaign, that it was widely predicted by all
:04:03. > :04:05.parties that UKIP could win the European elections and that Nigel
:04:06. > :04:10.Farage had done a lot of clips for news programmes, usually with a pint
:04:11. > :04:13.in hand and a smile on his face, usually inviting him to comment on
:04:14. > :04:18.others rather than being interrogated on his own position. I
:04:19. > :04:24.thought it was right to do that. It is clear that Nigel Farage does
:04:25. > :04:30.divide viewers. But on the English local elections, the charges the BBC
:04:31. > :04:34.exaggerated how successful they would be. They only got 116 seats
:04:35. > :04:39.compared to more than 2000 from Labour. They do not control any
:04:40. > :04:42.councils and their share of the vote went down. I think Labour supporters
:04:43. > :04:54.got deeply frustrated that they had made many games, the worst games and
:04:55. > :04:59.councils in votes. We did report that, but it is worth remembering
:05:00. > :05:03.that the results got much better into Friday than they were overnight
:05:04. > :05:08.Thursday night and into Friday morning. The picture come Friday
:05:09. > :05:12.night was much better and healthier for labour than it had been the
:05:13. > :05:18.night before and at the time people were switching on their radios or
:05:19. > :05:22.televisions. The point we were making, again and again, was to
:05:23. > :05:31.report the facts, you always got all the coverage. But we are there to
:05:32. > :05:34.add analysis and interpretation. The truth is, the people who study
:05:35. > :05:42.elections, whether it is Professor John Curtis, the head of you go in
:05:43. > :05:45.the studio, all agreed that these results were not good enough for
:05:46. > :05:49.labour to be confident of winning the next election. They only had a
:05:50. > :05:55.lead of 1% over the Conservatives. They were not as good as other
:05:56. > :06:02.positions had done in a similar time. UKIP had made a breakthrough.
:06:03. > :06:08.There were no longer just a European party. They were finding a basic in
:06:09. > :06:14.councils. They were establishing themselves as the fourth party of
:06:15. > :06:18.English politics. They went to do it in British politics in European
:06:19. > :06:22.elections. We were right to point that out. Let us talk about the
:06:23. > :06:29.parliamentary elections. UKIP did Windows. Many say that the BBC's
:06:30. > :06:35.coverage made it a self fulfilling prophecy. I know there is that
:06:36. > :06:42.feeling, but I think it is wrong. The big rise in UKIP's poll ratings
:06:43. > :06:47.happened before Nigel Farage was getting onto the television day in
:06:48. > :06:55.and day out. They had already been a search. UKIP had a record`breaking
:06:56. > :06:59.performance at the local council elections last May. You cannot make
:07:00. > :07:05.that link between recent coverage and his performance. We got the same
:07:06. > :07:08.complaints over last year's local elections. Many feel that the BBC
:07:09. > :07:13.has been building up UKIP for a year. What the BBC has to do is try
:07:14. > :07:19.and give effect coverage to politicians. The way this is done is
:07:20. > :07:23.by studying how parties have performed in the past, how many
:07:24. > :07:29.seats they have got, how they did in the general elections, how their
:07:30. > :07:33.current polities are going. Decisions on what made by me or my
:07:34. > :07:40.editors, but a chief political adviser whose job is to advise the
:07:41. > :07:45.BBC trust to mix a judgement, who gets roughly what share of coverage.
:07:46. > :07:52.His decision, which was echoed entirely by Channel 4 and sky, was
:07:53. > :07:57.that UKIP should get equal coverage to the big three parties in the
:07:58. > :08:03.European elections. It was a national vote. They performed very
:08:04. > :08:09.well in 2009. They were performing in the opinion polls in a way that
:08:10. > :08:13.suggested they may come first. A decision was taken that being fair
:08:14. > :08:16.and balanced meant giving UKIP the same level of coverage as the
:08:17. > :08:20.Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats. BBC News analysis
:08:21. > :08:27.resented both Europe and local boats at a Westminster died to help people
:08:28. > :08:31.might vote in general elections. There was very little on issues
:08:32. > :08:38.reported in the local European Parliament. That is surely failing
:08:39. > :08:41.to do the job. There is a downside about that, but it is not all the
:08:42. > :08:47.coverage. If you listen to radio stations or watch TV news or read
:08:48. > :08:51.online, you will see stories about Sheffield Council or stories about
:08:52. > :08:58.any other council reported in terms of that. It simply is not realistic
:08:59. > :09:03.that a national level we can do that. We do see through a prism of
:09:04. > :09:08.what it means for a general election. There is a long history of
:09:09. > :09:12.local elections being a pretty good guide as to what will happen. In
:09:13. > :09:18.European Parliament, that is a fair criticism. There was certainly
:09:19. > :09:22.coverage around, but it is a fair criticism that we need to constantly
:09:23. > :09:25.think about how to explain to people what exactly a member of the
:09:26. > :09:29.European Parliament does and what the differences are between people
:09:30. > :09:38.who are representing one party and represented another.
:09:39. > :09:44.Just time for a couple of other items. The statement's question Time
:09:45. > :09:52.certainly did that. The panel included Piers Morgan and it was put
:09:53. > :09:55.that the party should not be too pleased with its election
:09:56. > :10:00.performance. All your present to me is the best of a bad bunch. If I am
:10:01. > :10:06.somewhere and there were four really ugly girls, I am thinking, that is
:10:07. > :10:25.all you are. That is all you are to us.
:10:26. > :10:31.Finally, some more positive feedback. Singer and producer Corel
:10:32. > :10:37.Williams was interviewed on Thursday's Breakfast. This video was
:10:38. > :11:00.inspired. It might have ended so well, but
:11:01. > :11:03.most viewers applauded the enthusiasm and bravery. This e`mail
:11:04. > :11:19.was typical. Do let us know what makes you happy
:11:20. > :11:32.or unhappy. That is all for this week. Tell us your views. We are
:11:33. > :11:36.also on Twitter. If you ever missed a programme on television, you can
:11:37. > :11:39.catch up with it on the website. We will be back to heal thoughts next
:11:40. > :11:55.week. `` Carey or thoughts. A dry and bright weekend looms large
:11:56. > :11:57.for most of us after what has been a grey and soggy week. It has actually
:11:58. > :11:58.been a mild