on the brexit process. but not everyone thinks this sort of reporting is the best use of air time. here's tonyjones. another concern held about the use of vox pops or panel discussions with members of the public is how accurately they reflect the balance of opinion in the uk right now. richard thomas rang us with his thoughts on that. i think you need to review your vox pop policies, to ensure that the apparently random selections are genuinely representative and you're not going to geographical locations or particular places which are going to be unrepresentative

of the country as a whole. well, let's discuss this with the bbc‘s home affairs editor, mark easton. everyone has an opinion about brexit, what is the value, say viewers, in turning up in different towns to hear people disagree about it? well, you know, i'm not going to defend the value of a bad vox pop. i think people will know the kind of one, where somebody arrives in a shopping centre, throws a question at people, one person says yes, one person saying no, and the other looks confused. time will tell. that seems to me to be something that's patronising and insulting, something i do think is really important. i think the vox pop is a valuable tool in our armoury, and of course sometimes you will get people who say things — we saw a lady there in the clip, who's a bit confused, doesn't really have a formed, settled view. that's part of the story. that's important. people say what is the point of putting that on air? this is about the bbc being seen all around the country,

but there is no information in items like that. oh, i think it is packed with information. if we want to understand our country and want to understand where it's heading, we have to understand what the people feel, and what they think, and the only way you do that is by going to ask them. it's never going to be a perfect science. there are obviously ways you can test public opinion — opinion polls — but they're actually really a blunt tool. they can tell you the what, what people say to certain questions, but they're not so good at getting to the why. i think in british politics — immigration was really off the agenda for mainstream politics for quite a few decades, and i think that the only way that we would have been alerted to the fact that people were, there was real disquiet about the demographic change, rapid change about the impact of globalisation on people's communities. the only way that you were going to find that was to listen ts; the peeple at thebusv ,, ' 77 " f

or the social club. rapidly at the minute, people are confused. we need to represent that confusion — sometimes peoples views are incoherent or contradictory. we need to represent that too. so much has changed in the last decade there is no shortage of outlets for general people's opinions. phone in shows on tv and radio. bbc news, say viewers, is supposed to tell us what's happened. no, i don't think that's right. i think that what bbc news does is tell us what's happened, but it's also trying to help people understand what's going on. what are the sub currents, what are the passions and the concerns and anxieties, and the sort ofjoys of the british people? what do they care about? what do they not care about? but in the end, it depends on who you have in front of the cameras, so you know, as well as vox pops, with random people in the street, you put together these panels of selected voters, but there's only ever going to be a small number, and we get complains from viewers who say they are not balanced or representative,

they are certainly not scientific. —— complaints. well, it's not as scientific as, it's not a law of physics involved, they de a let. fer instance. for a company trying to understand whether its soap powder branding works, for instance. we take the same model and use it to delve that bit deeper into what people think. making sure we've got people on both sides of the argument, different ages, different backgrounds, different classes, and so on. what it boiled down to, for the complainants we've had, what concerns people, as home affairs editor, you should be investigating facts, how brexit is impacting people, rather than assembling people to speculate about it. i really think we do both. i think to say well, the voice of the people doesn't matter, is a massive, massive mistake right now. we must listen to what people say.

especially in those jury situations, we will work hard to inform people, ee well giverthem some analysis so that they can make their points with a bit more information, a kind of deliberative process. that, ithink, can be really valuable. but the idea that actually this is not proper news, that actually it's sort of lazy journalism, as one of your commentators said, i absolutely reject. yes, a bad vox pop is lazy journalism, but a good one, where we actually work really hard to try and understand what people are thinking and why, i think is hugely valuable, in fact, i would say essential. mark easton, thank you. responsibility, common sense,

and wondering whether it isn't time to let the policemen and the chauffeur do the driving and, quite literally, to take a back seat. raymond walker thought the audacity to discuss whether the duke should drive is impudent, while terrencejones added, "there was no evidence offered to show who was at fault. it may have been him, equally it may have been the other driver. this is unadulterated ageism." but others felt there was insufficient attention paid to those in the other vehicle involved. bbc news did report on thursday that two women suffered minor injuries, but it emerged on friday that one of them had broken her wrist and there was also a nine—month—old baby onboard. a viewer called catherine e—mailed. when breaking news and live sport coincide, particularly when the latter overruns, the result is inevitably complaints.

such an occasion arose on wednesday evening, when bbc one was showing football, a replayed fa cup match between southampton and derby county. the game went to extra time, delaying the start of the news at ten, which was particularly unfortunate, because a couple of minutes after 10pm, the prime minister gave her response to winning the no confidence vote three hours before that. the statement was shown live in a short unplanned bulletin on bbc two, and after derby county had triumphed on penalties, the news at ten ran half an hour late on bbc one, but some viewers were still unhappy. jane birchfield was astonished that... well, the bbc put out this statement in response. to deal with the fast—moving torrent

of news from westminster this week, bbc two's politics live programme has been running special editions at 7pm, in addition to their normal lunchtime slots. tuesday evenings showing came shortly after the vote on theresa may's brexit deal, and saw andrew neil interviewing the health secretary, matt hancock. here's his third go at one particular question. give me one major change the european union could now make, that would make the deal palatable to a majority in that chamber. no, andrew, the thing about listening is that you listen before ministers pronounce, and so that's what we are going to do.

well, minister, you're clearly not listening to me because i'm asking you quite a simple question and you're refusing to answer it. what major change could the european union now make, that would overturn a majority of 230 against the may deal? give me one. andrew, you can keep asking the question, the same question, and i'll keep giving you the same answer, which is... well, you're not giving me an answer at all, minister. i am giving you a very clear answer, which is that we are going to listen to the commons. opinion was divided on whether that was persistence or rudeness on the part of andrew neil. tamsin napier munroe wrote: but there were also plaudits from the likes of chilternbear on twitter. 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 on... or e—mail newswatch. you can find us on twitter, and do have a look at our website, the address for that is: that's all from us, we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hi there. friday was a bit of a disappointing day, particularly through the afternoon, where we saw outbreaks of rain, sleep and snow push in from the west — all courtesy of this area of low and it means for the weekend, it is going to bring us a lot of cloud and outbreaks of rain, maybe some hill sleet and snow for a while but it is a dying feature. —— sleet. so for the early part of saturday, it does look fairly wet across parts of england and wales with some sleet and snow,

particularly over the higher ground of the east and north—east of england. further north, though, across scotland, the far north of england, where we have the best of any clear skies,. and here it is going to be the coldest start to the day but at least you will have the sunshine to compensate. so much of the northern half of scotland bright, cold and crisp through this morning. further south, into england and wales and for parts of northern ireland, we've got that weak weather front so it stays cloudy, for most of us anyway, with outbreaks of rain and a little bit of hill sleet and snow continuing, particularly across this north—east corner of england. but as we head through the course of today, that weather front will continue to weaken. many places should turn drier but hold onto a legacy of cloud, but we should start to see some heavy showers developing across south wales and in towards south—west england with a few sunny spells — that could push temperatures up to 10 degrees here, but elsewhere, it's going to be rather chilly, despite the sunshine across the far north of scotland. and then through saturday night, it turns drier for most, but again, we continue to see quite a bit of cloud around, a little bit of fog,

and even some freezing fog across northern parts of the country. once again, it'll be quite chilly under clear skies with some frost, maybe even a risk of ice. as we head on into sunday, we're in between weather systems. pressure will be building across much of the country but this weak weather front will bring further cloud, outbreaks of rain to the north—west corner of the country. so for scotland, northern ireland, a band of rain spreads its way southwards and begins to fizzles out. there could be some hill snow for a while. but behind it, skies brighten up nicely with some sunshine here. but i think for england and wales, they will hold onto quite a bit of cloud, with the best of any brightness across the far east of england. once again, it will be chilly — temperatures of 5—7 degrees. as we head on into next week, for the early part of next week, a weather front sweeps southwards, bringing outbreaks of rain and some snow, followed by blustery, wintry showers and sunny spells. but as we head deeper into next week, we start to lose the cold, northerly winds, and start to pick up something from the north—east. it looks like this could be even colder and it could also drive some

snow showers across the north sea into our shore. so next week is staying cold, with some sleet and snow for some of us. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: president trump and north korea's leader kim jong—un are to meet for a second summit next month, with hopes for progress on de—nuclearisation. we've had very good steps in good faith from the north koreans, in releasing the hostages and other moves. and so, we're going to continue those conversations, and the president looks forward to his next meeting. "not accurate" — robert mueller‘s special counsel rejects a report that president trump ordered his lawyer to lie to congress. hundreds of central american migrants cross into mexico without waiting for a humanitarian visa, joining the caravan that's port talbot will become a come—to place, rather