hello and welcome to news watch. the dancing prime minister garnered most of the headlines at this week's conservative party conference but did the bbc do itsjob in covering policy as well as performance. and has the way we have got to talking about politics on the news just got too rude and argumentative? the party conference season is when we expect a leading politicians to set out their big ideas in the full glare of the media spotlight. sometimes though they declined broadcasters invitations to submit themselves to questioning and this week that led to a row. on tuesday, representatives from the bbc, sky, itv, channel 4 and channel five complained ina itv, channel 4 and channel five complained in a letter to downing street about what they called the prime minister's lack of availability for television interviews during her party's conference. her director of

communications replied that she had done 36 interviews during the conference. meanwhile, nick robinson mentioned on the today programme last week that although labour leaders normally appeared on the show during their party conference, they had been told thatjeremy corbyn was unavailable to do so. signs perhaps of an increasingly fractious relationship between the news media and politicians and there have been more signs of that when party leaders have turned up interview. last sunday morning, theresa may appeared on the andrew marr show. sunday morning, theresa may appeared on the andrew marr showm sunday morning, theresa may appeared on the andrew marr show. it was necessary for us on the andrew marr show. it was necessary for us to take some tough decisions to deal with public finances because of the mess that the labour party had left them in. people have made sacrifices as a result of that. and they may have to make a lot more if we go for no guilt? i'm afraid we're out time, theresa may. we will be live next week... theresa may. we will be live next week. . . that theresa may. we will be live next week... that rather abrupt end to

the interview annoyed rather a lot of readers. two days later came the much trailed arrival in birmingham of a certain backbench mp. the prime minister says former foreign secretary boris johnson makes her cross after he launches a scathing attack on her checkis launches a scathing attack on her check is planned for leaving the european union. addressing a fringe event at the tory party conference, the former foreign secretary called the former foreign secretary called the prime minister's plan dangerous and a cheat. this is the moment to do this and there is time, this is the moment to chuck checkers. the appearance of the former foreign secretary and the attention given to it proved an irritant, notjust to the prime minister but to number of news watchers. one man declared

himself... tabriz eight certainly regained everyone's full attention on wednesday from the moment she stepped on stage to deliver hirst beach. —— theresa may. that really is another, that really is the prime minister, dancing onto the stage, laughing with herself when her political situation has been anything but funny. never mind the much discussed dance moves, was the reporting in step with what the public needed to know? one viewer thought not, tweeting. .. well, to discuss the challenges of

political reporting at the moment i'm joined by the head of bbc westminster, thank you for coming on news watch. last year's bbc news conference was dominated by everything that gone wrong in theresa may's speech and this year the party clearly put on a deliberate stunt but do you have some responsibility if that is all the people really rememberfrom some responsibility if that is all the people really remember from the conference? i hope everybody remembers moore, the music was ten seconds upmost than the piece that oui’ seconds upmost than the piece that our reporter put out was about five minutes so it was a very small part of that. i think we have a real responsibility to look at the speech asa responsibility to look at the speech as a whole, think about the general message of the speech and then look at the key messages that we think are important for the audience to be

aware of. in addition to that, what we do is then sit back and think about other things like policy areas because in the end, the audience ca re really because in the end, the audience care really about what these policies are coming out of government. in this case, we took the housing announcement and decided to do the housing announcement and decided todoa the housing announcement and decided to do a separate piece on that to explain that further. news watch viewers have been concerned for a long time about news coverage around politics that has focused on personalities, particularly borisjohnson. they feel it comes at the expense of scrutinising policy ideas. and they feel it is getting worse, can you see why? i think it is a really interesting question and i would like to reassure viewers that actually it is something that we really do think about quite a lot. we have got to be careful not to just be attracted by what we call

shiny objects but really focus on why we are focusing so much coverage on is personal one moment. in the case of boris johnson, on is personal one moment. in the case of borisjohnson, i think you have got to look at what happened in the room on tuesday. there was an enormous amount of interest in his speech. he did fill with over a thousand people supporting him not only that you need to look at who was in the room and i think there we re was in the room and i think there were as many as 20 mps, which given the prime minister's opposition in parliament is quite a crucial number in terms of getting her policies through. so it is the consideration. and in the end, he is a very, very popular figure. the big set piece interviews with leaders at conferences, have they become too confrontational? i think politics has always been confrontational and you look back at the decades of bbc's you look back at the decades of bbc‘s coverage and over the different types of personalities whether it is bbc broadcasters or indeed politicians. i do not think it is really that different. i really think we're in extraordinary times andi really think we're in extraordinary times and i think from perspective you can feel that from

behind—the—scenes. certainly during the referendum, certainly through the referendum, certainly through the 2015 election and obviously the 2017 election. these are very high sta kes 2017 election. these are very high stakes and we're not living in times with large majorities for parties and that always makes both the parties much more tense and the relationships constant and of coarse we have conversations with the parties but certainly we are resista nt to a ny parties but certainly we are resistant to any pressure and we consider everyjudgment on every story as you expect. it is interesting the issue ofjournalists been resistant to pressure from parties, we mentioned earlier that all the major broadcasters wrote this letter to downing street concerned about a lack of access to the prime minister. to think the relationship between politicians and journalists has got reformed?” think the story at the moment is very tense, it is very important, the country is facing some big

decisions and i think there times where it is fraught but i'm not sure it has changed that much over the decades. there has always been tension between broadcasters, papers and politicians. and in the end, it is ourjob to look at every decision, resist pressure but hear what they are saying, and make judgments on that. there is a general view now that the whole public discourse around politics in this country has got to angry and vitriolic. some of that this social media but that is only part of it. do you think there is anything bbc news can do about that?” do you think there is anything bbc news can do about that? i think you have got to test the temperature on political interviews. personally, i think we need to resist getting into arguments with people, that is absolutely not our role. but there isa absolutely not our role. but there is a balance with this because you of also got to hold people to account it absolutely right that we are confident in how we approach

political interviews. so it is getting a balance between becoming an argument because i think actually the audience doesn't get anything out of that but been seen that we are testing those policies and the points that politicians are presenting. thank you. as we have been hearing, the uk's forthcoming departure from the european union has significantly raise the temperature in public discourse and the language used by broadcasters is coming under more scrutiny than ever. take the proposalfor another referendum on the subject which has gained increasing political traction in recent weeks. at turns it has been referred to one air as a people's vote, a term that one man ta kes people's vote, a term that one man takes issue with. but the term second referendum is

not uncontroversial itself. here it is being used a couple of times recently is being used a couple of times rece ntly o n is being used a couple of times recently on bbc news. campaigners claim momentum is building behind a second referendum. the lib dems want a second referendum on the brexit deal and servings urged the prime minister to follow their example. the difficulty with that description of another vote is outlined in this telephone message received. we have already had two referendums. if you remember, there was one in the 19705 so remember, there was one in the 19705 so why keep on 5aying remember, there was one in the 19705 so why keep on saying the second referendum when of course if another referendum when of course if another referendum occurs, it would be a third referendum. can't bbc journalist count? well, bbc news has been thinking about the terminology around this issue so we asked them for their position on it and this is what they told us. thank you for all your comments this

week. if you want to share your opinions on bbc news and current affairs or even appear on the programme, you can call us. or e—mail at... you programme, you can call us. or e—mailat... you can programme, you can call us. or e—mail at... you can find us on twitter and do have a look at our website for previous discussions. the address for that is on the screen. we will be back to hear your thoughts on bbc news coverage next week. goodbye.

we have had a three—way split going on across the uk today, southern area seen plenty of sunshine and warmth where this weather front has been it has been damp and bright in chilly further north. it will continue to struggle the country through the night and by saturday it will bring heavy rain to parts of england and wales. to the north, another chilly night to come with a touch of frost in places. the saturday quite mixed, england cloudy with heavy rain. the rain slowly migrating south and eastwards through the day. further north, apart from a few showers around it should be a lovely afternoon. the shower is affecting the north and scotland, but lots of sunshine. increasing sunshine for wales and the south—west with the midlands eastwards holding onto mcleod, strong northerly winds and outbreaks of rain slowed to clear from the south—east. a much cooler day across

the south—east compared to friday and chilly further north but further sunshine to compensate. that area of rain slips out eventually we have another weather system moving into the north of the country. the high pressure ridge will mean a cold start to sunday with a touch of frost in places. bright with lots of sunshine around a better day for the southeast too. increasing wind and rain across scotland and northern ireland. some rain will be heavy across western scotland. caulfield to things in the north, betterfor england and wales, 1a to 16 degrees. high building across parts of the uk as we head into the new week, we continue to see the weather front played in parts of scotland and northern ireland. outbreaks of rain continuing on monday here, the best of the drier bright weather will be

across vast parts of england and wales. temperatures creeping up a little bit into the high teens. as we head into the rest of the week it looks like it will stay fairly wet across northern areas with high pressure building and for many of us it will turn sunnier. this is bbc news. the headlines at eight. in a test of support for president trump's supreme court nominee, brett kavanaugh, us senators narrowly back a motion to advance his nomination to a final vote. on this vote, the no's are a9, the motion is agreed to. a man who pushed a 90—year—old passenger onto tube tracks in central london has been found guilty of attempted murder. the government faces criticism for not alerting mps to problems in disposing tonnes of medical waste and body parts despite convening an emergency committee to discuss it last month. it's irresponsible that the health department

and the environment agency still haven't told us the full facts about what on earth is going on, on an issue where environment health questions are being raised and we still don't know the full fact. it's completely unfair on the local community.