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which are the important issues to report on conference of late? And so

for wars. He sits on the left and she sits on the right. Coincidence

or something of a power game? The economy took centrestage this week

with the Chancellor unveiling a budget. The BBC's economics editor

was crunching the numbers on Wednesday's news bulletins. This

graph shows the government will borrow more over the next four

years. Unmounted borrowing higher than falling more slowly. -- on

amount. That will still turn despite all the economic gloom, says the

Chancellor, into a ?10.4 billion surplus the following year come just

in time for the election. That mention of the election is an

increasingly political area with every statistic and forecast

disputed and fought over by government and opposition. But could

the BBC be more objective and factual in this area? James thinks

so, writing the following. Another criticism we have received

is outlined by Godfrey. And then there is the problem of

varied levels of knowledge about economics among the audience and

this colour would like a little more explanation of the terminology

used. When you say something on the news, and you might use the initials

GDP, not everybody knows what it stands for. So would it be possible

to every so often, when you say something, say it in. We know what

you're talking about? We don't all know what GDP is. At the end of a

very busy budget week, come all on the joins us now. Let's start with

that last point. Many people if they are honest would admit that many

people don't understand quite basic economic terminology, so how do you

pitch your coverage? You do try to steer clear of acronyms. I think the

lady makes a very good point about GDP on the gross domestic product,

no one uses that in normal language down the pub. I try to speak, I am

just one of a big set of people in the BBC's economics unit for the

BBC, I try to use national income so at least you have a notion of how

much the country is earning as a nation, which I think is slightly

more helpful in trying to get across the idea of GDP. Then also trying to

get across the idea that it matters because economic growth is how we

create more jobs, is how we create higher wages for everybody, and how

we create a degree of prosperity. Is always helpful to drive economics

coverage so is engaging to people in their realise. Let's talk about

budget week. It is the most important time in your job among

many people would think, and there is so much information packed into

that speech. How do you deal with trying to unpack it under the time

pressures you have without compromising on getting things

right? Absolutely. It comes down to the fact that I am just one of a

whole group of people who are outputting tons of information about

that online and across all our broadcast channels and radio. My job

as the economics editor of the BBC is to really try and pick out two or

three big themes that are important for our viewers, our listeners, our

online readers to understand what George Osborne, the Chancellor, is

trying to do or at least selling to the public. Paul Johnson of the IFF

was on the Newsday quite recently and he bemoaned the pressure for

having overnight analysis of something more complex. Can you see

his point? I think we have to do both, sadly. The BBC can't be in a

vacuum all we go into our chance chance for a bit and wonder what

this really means. You have to give some type of news with your

expertise, some type of instant response on the programme live. But

let's not forget, the following day I was back on the Ten O'clock News

the day after the budget, giving a more 24-hour view. So yes, instant

response, but Paul Johnston is absolutely right, we need to give a

considered view with a bit of time and perspective. One of the

complaints that came in was from that third-year economics

undergraduate saying, actually economics is neutral and you should

be able to say if a policy is sound and is going to do what it says it

is. Is that true? There is the old jokes, if you lined up every

economics person and, they still wouldn't reach a conclusion. It is

not a science in the same way that physics is a science. If you drop a

ball it goes down. Economics is full of a lot of opinion and judgement,

and therefore I don't think there can be a simple right or wrong.

George Osborne is simply wrong to do this or John McDonald the Shadow

Chancellor is wrong to argue this. I think we need to give people an

understanding of the cases for what George Osborne is doing and the

criticisms of some of what he is doing. But in economics, there is no

right and wrong. It is really interesting how much the speculation

in the air around economics exists given that people are always talking

about real numbers. One of the other big complaints we have had it

Newsday is the amount of airtime filled in the run-up to things like

the budget with speculation. Asking people in workplaces about stuff

they don't know. Does it annoy you? There is no point asking people who

don't know things to tell you their opinion but the public, the opinion

of the public, this is real stuff. This is about people's wages, jobs,

where their children might go to work. The global economy is vital to

us in terms of trade. These are vital issues to our country and to

our viewers, listeners and online readers. I think it is important

that we give lots of time to consider these things and to allow a

whole host of voices to be involved in this debate. Because if you

forget that this is about real people, and it is all academics and

politicians who supposedly know everything, it would be a very

sterile debate. I say bring in the people who are actually at the sharp

end of this whether they are hairdressers or academics or have

but kids or not the kids or drive a car or don't drive a car. Is really

important and I think it is great that we do that. I think we should

get involved in idle speculation, he may do this and this may happen and

I hope I don't do that and they don't believe the BBC does that.

Thank you. Do let us know your thoughts on the BBC's coverage of

economics or any aspect of its news output. I will let you know how to

get in touch with us shortly. Before that, we've got used to Top Gear

controversy in the days of Jeremy Clarkson but now when you presenter

has taken over and it seems the trend is continuing. Last weekend,

one of the new hosts, Matt LeBlanc and a professional driver performed

handbrake spans known as doughnuts near the Cenotaph in London. After

protests that the filming was disrespectful, the Top Gear team

said the footage would not be shown on the programme. But in reporting

on story on Monday, BBC News showed video of the stunts shot by

onlooker. That elicited this reaction from Phil. The Top Gear

stunts at the Cenotaph had been deemed to be tasteless and

disrespectful and do have rightly been dropped from erring on the

programme. They had even been apologised for by the programme's

co- presenter Chris Evans. What on earth are BBC News staff thinking in

showing it on the Six O'clock News therefore? Does the right hand not

know what the left hand is doing? This is just tabloid sensationalism

and it is a shame and disappointment that the BBC saw fit to show it.

When will they learn to live up to the reputation they have is a series

news provider? We put that point, made by number of viewers, to BBC

executives and they told us the following.

Finally, a can of worms was opened On Breakfast this week on a subject

that may never have crossed her mind before. Who sits where on the sofa

and why? Hello and welcome back, this is Breakfast with Bill Turnbull

and Louise Minchin up late until he left the programme recently, Bill

Turnbull said on the left of the screen with Louise Minchin or

whoever else was reporting with him on the right. His replacement, Dan

Walker, seems to have inherited his seat but it turns out that the

so-called camera left position is associated in TD convention with

seniority. So why hasn't it been taken by the more experienced Louise

Minchin? That appears to have been causing some disquiet, widely

reported in the press this week. In a statement, Breakfast told us the

following. But some have detected sexism at play here because it turns

out that left of the green position always seems to be taken by a man On

Breakfast. That is normally true elsewhere on television as well with

the occasional exception. Many programmes have decided to shake it

up on Wednesday that bill but what side shall we sit down on the sofa?

Is the question. Some of you might be freaked out but we have been

hearing that the male presenter always sits on the left and we had

decided to switch it up. Twitter has gone into meltdown. Some people are

watching the show in the mirror so we are the right way around. This

apparently has to do with the fact that you lead from left to right. Is

there sexism going on here or not? Lese thought to not. -- not. Tell us

what you think about that and about any aspect of BBC News. You can call

us at the following number or e-mail Newsday at the following address.

You can find us on Twitter and to have a look at our website. The

address for that is on your screen now. We are off air next week over

Easter but do join us again the week after that. Goodbye.

It has been a predominantly dry week, but each

day we have been chasing cloud amounts around, and that has had

A drab day with a lot of cloud pushing in from the North Sea.

Where we did have sunshine in north-west Wales,