the democratic process. a snp mp suggested: the bbc said, it's disappointed to have dogged the planned programme, which would have involved, what are they called, a substantive head to head debate. as well as contributions from other voices, including other political parties. reflecting the wide range of views on brexit. neither that nor any other format proposed by broadcasters met with the agreement of both theresa may and jeremy corbyn. if that's a shame for some, it's not a surprise. after all, the history of tv debates between political leaders in the uk is a rather tortured one. after many failed attempts

to get off the ground, the 2010 general election finally saw the party leaders debate together for the first time. david cameron and gordon brown famously spent a lot of time agreeing with nick clegg — but not with each other. sorry, can ijust try and move beyond the political point scoring? competition between broadcasters and calls for other parties to be represented meant the format had become far more complex by 2015. the bbc hosted this debate between the five opposition parties, while the prime minister took part in a seven—way debate on itv. the eu referendum campaign saw the great debate, organised by the bbc at wembley arena. this thursday can be our countries

independence day. borisjohnson and sadiq khan were among the two teams of debaters, representing the leave and remain campaigns. there was also a second stage, where a panel of ten people represented voices beyond the official campaigns. all seven uk parties were back on the stage for the 2017 general election — but not theresa may. she chose not to take part in this bbc debate, sending the then home secretary, amber rudd, in her place. but, with so many voices taking part, the politicians sometimes struggled to make themselves heard. joining me now to discuss this is former editor in chief at itn and the relic of course, he's now a board member of the channel 4. did you attempt to get a wii debate that itn? i tried and failed many times.

that is is, you haven't got a debate on mice the debate with turnovers they've all the cards. if they've all the cars. if they didn't turn up for the debate, there would be a debate. that talk about what has happened in this case. the busy debate, the one that didn't happen, why didn't it happen? we don't have all the details. as i understand it, the offers from itv and bbc were quite similar. there would be a head—to—head section and then a other voices section. 0n bbc, this was good to beat one programme. 0n itv, there was good to be a debate before and after i misled to get the others you. are you surprised that they've fallen through? we knew may didn't want to do a debate during the last election. we knew that is not the best way of doing things. many more one—to—one is with people around the country, but appears to be her strength i was a bit surprised

it came forward. i'm a bit surprised that the itv four, which was still on the table until late in the day, did not meet most of what she wanted. that's the point of view of what the leaders might have wanted. given that the public would not have any views on this, it was all about mps voting in parliament. what was even the point? from the broadcaster's point of view, this would be a trophy. in the national occasion. not a many people would have watched it, compared to regular sunday programming. i don't know if many people would have much out of it, in terms of information. it is probably most important for broadcasters to get on record when there is a moment of debate between two national leaders. that has still not been established over many years now. after the prime minister initially accepted the invitation to do

a brexit debate, jeremy, refused and called the bbc the government's preferred broadcasters. there does seem to be a perception issue that this idea came from someone at the bbc. often what happens is that people think, you may want one organisation to join but your heart remains well you came from. looking back at 2010, the leaders debate were popular. it was clear who would be on this debate and why. now, it seems that i see many more voices and opinions on who should be on them. have broadcasters got them into an unwinnable situation about representation? i think there is some truth in that. if you look back at 2010,

there was an oddity about that. why were those three see the display and no one else? the answers given by the broadcasters was that the only three people with chance of becoming prime minister. it would like, let's take the status quo parties and ignore the rest. since then, the liberal democrats have dropped dramatically. the snp are the third biggest party in the uk parliament, where did they fit into this jigsaw? that is the problem. the days of two and three party politics have gone. sky have proposed as a independent commission to set the rules for tv debates. is that the way forward? i looked at this closely. i came away pretty sceptical about it. the truth is, this is not like a competition where you enter and you know what the rules are.

you cannot force political parties do something if they don't want to do. do you think viewers get anything out of the debates? i think viewers deserve a more extensive way of probing issues that they currently get. broadcasters have struggled to do that. they have to balance the requirements of the use with rules of impartiality. they are not under pretty clear on that. i have sympathy with both the audience and the broadcasters who are trying to find the right way of doing things for the nation at like this. president george bush senior was laid to rest on wednesday in a state ‘s middle, with most of the service being shown live on the bbc news channel. katy kay was commentating on events in washington. this is the casket of george hw bush, the 41st president

of the united states. for the next hour or so, katy kay and her guests stayed quiet while the ceremony preceded. there had already been too much talking over events for this viewer. the commentators are talking nonstop. can't we just listen to the service and music? theyjust never stop talking. it's a real intrusion and really annoying. last week, we discussed the presence of anti—brexit protesters in the background of cover shots outside the palace of westminster. in a studio environment, sometimes what appears behind isn't really better. artificial backgrounds can have problems of the urban. hugh would be leaving under martial

law. —— you. the background hasjust gone crazy on the screen. you willjust go to tell us that there was no martial law in it is very cold and wintry. a test of calm, cool and collected presenting skills! as we were saying, as the night returns to us shortly. there were plaudits from his conclave on twitter. thank you for all your comments this week. join us next week for our last programme of the year. it promises to be a busy easy. if you like ours to quit your

opinions, or even appear on the programme. do is an colour. —— do call us. that's all from us. will be back next week. goodbye. hello there. the last 2a hours have been quite turbulent weatherwise, we've had gales, heavy rain, and as we go through the weekend, things only quieten down a little bit. it will stay windy, a showery day to come on saturday, sunday should be a little drier but equally it will start to turn a bit chillier. now, look at this, this beautiful swirl of cloud on the satellite picture, this is the deep low that passed the north of scotland on friday. you can see some showers

circulating around the low. we've still got some pretty strong winds out there. across northern areas of the country, the winds will ease but further south it will stay quite windy and we'll see some showers pushing in from the west. for eastern areas it might be a dry start with some sunshine but these heavy downpours pushing in are becoming quite widespread by the afternoon, some of them contain the odd flash of lightning and the odd rumble of thunder. temperature—wise, nine in aberdeen, 13 in london. as we go through saturday night we will continue to see some downpours coming and going at times. it will also stay windy, particularly in the south. now, for some southern and western coastal areas, we could see gusts through the night of 50—60, possibly in the most exposed spots 70mph wind gusts. that could cause some disruption. and look at all the white lines, the isobars squeezing together on the charts, a sign ofjust how windy it will be. this frontal system on sunday morning likely to bring some showers, but as it slides away southwards, and as the showers clear, we are going to be left with some chilly air working its way

from the north, the winds switching around to more north or north—westerly. early on sunday, some showers in central and southern areas should clear away, most areas by the afternoon dry with some sunshine, a few showers in spots exposed to the north—westerly winds. temperatures a little lower, ranging from 5—6 in the north to maybe just double digits across the south. those temperatures will drop away during sunday night, particularly for eastern and northern parts where the winds fall light and we keep clear skies, we could well see a touch of frost, as signified by this blue shading creeping across the map. not quite as cold down towards the south—west, seven degrees in plymouth, for example, as we start monday morning, but one in glasgow and freezing newcastle. but we start monday with high pressure trying to take charge. you can see this little bump in the isobars. the winds will be lighter and we will get some spells of sunshine. frontal systems lying in wait out west, though. so after a pretty quiet start to the week, things are likely to turn a bit more unsettled from midweek onwards. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers

in north america and around the globe. my name is reged ahmad. our top stories: court documents reveal how donald trump's former personal lawyer has helped the investigation into alleged russian collusion with the trump campaign. a top executive from the chinese telecoms giant, huawei, who's wanted on multiple fraud charges in the us, appears in court in canada. french students clash with police as the country braces for a fourth weekend of yellow vest protests. and could diversity be the real winner at the next grammys with more artists and a bigger range of award categories are announced.