this is not right. appearances like that prompted this call to our phone line. you are giving too much time to andy burnham and labour up north. they obviously want to have a north—south divide and you are storing this up in their favour. try to be a little more impartial if you can. that sense that too much airtime has been devoted to criticism of the government's handling of the pandemic has been expressed to us more widely over the past few weeks. linda bryce recorded this video for us summing up the thoughts of many viewers. i'm heartbroken with your continual negative coverage of the covid—19 crisis. the latest news have been very difficult to accept, that we are all going to have six months of quite severe restrictions, but every time we have a broadcast the bbc line—up a series of people to criticise and condemn everything that this government or the scientists have tried to do.

if you were more supportive as well as critical we would become more confident. i got to a stage now where i never watch your news unless absolutely necessary, and i've resorted to other channels. not that they are a lot better, but they don't continually try and upset a whole nation. linda bryce there. and geoff cooling e—mailed us this week with this. butjulie coyne had a different

perspective writing on thursday... well, the health editor for bbc news, hugh pym, has scarcely been off our screens over the past few months and a couple of weeks ago well, the health editor for bbc news, hugh pym, has scarcely been off our screens over the past few months and a couple of weeks ago he won this year's charles wheeler award for outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism. and hejoins me now. the public mood around covid is really changed since march, hasn't it? genuine disagreement nationwide about lockdown measures and i wonder if you think there are dangers for the bbc in putting those views on airas they might discourage compliance.

there did seem to be much more national consensus about lockdown measures in march, april and may. and that seems very different now understandably when people have lost jobs and their businesses have been affected, and they are getting pretty fed up with the situation. i think we have a duty to reflect different shades of opinion on bbc news, and we are certainly not shy of using interviewees who might be critical of aspects of government policy, if they are credible witnesses. for example, the great barrington declaration, those were academics who challenged lockdown. doctor gupta and doctor hannigan from oxford university were among those who signed them, and carl hannigan, we have used on challenging some of the government figures. it is a big debate here, and we are reflecting all shades of opinion and what can be quite a polarising situation. i want to ask a bit more about that,

because with the debate so polarised the bbc is in a really tricky position. if you portray the official policy you run the risk of being seen as a mouthpiece for the government and if you highlight the opposite view the audience complain, and they do complain, that they are becoming confused and cynical. can you give an insight into your approach as a bbcjournalist and how much coverage to give each side? borisjohnson himself said at his most recent press briefing that there were two ends of this debate in the spectrum. one was that we had to go for tougher lockdown measures than with the government was proposing at the moment in england, that is, and the other end of the spectrum is that any form of restrictions even now, never mind more, was unacceptable because it was damaging people's liberties and damaging people's well—being. so the whole debate is extremely complex. i think we have a duty to report what experts are saying, including

the chief medical officers and chief scientific adviser. look at the data that's presented and say this is what the experts are saying. and then to provide as much analysis and context as possible. the most, kind of, common complaint that we have received about the bbc‘s coverage of covid is that it seems to relentlessly negative. and it's always emphasising what has gone wrong with government response. is the inevitable with such a grim story, or given that we all know there are real worries about people's mental health and well—being, do you have a responsibility to seek out more positive news stories around covid? well, i think we have a duty to present the facts and the statistics as they are. and some of our audiences are telling us they like to have the data presented and analysed, even if that can make it rather gloomy reading if the daily reported death figures are going up, the daily cases are

going up and so on. even if every night people might, in some quarters, get a little tired of it. we are doing positive stories as well about advances being made slowly towards a vaccine and towards more drug therapies. but also what the nhs is now doing in terms of non—covid work, bringing patients back into hospitals for treatment that has been postponed. there's obviously a large backlog. so i think we are trying to show what is happening both gloomy and maybe a bit more optimistic. you talked about the importance of facts and statistics. they are inevitably a big part of reporting covid, but again we get a lot of complaints from viewers who feel they are bombarded with statistics and numbers. not always put into the context of more testing. when you say look at the number of positive covid tests, how do you approach reporting statistics like that? i think every time we have

reported tests and cases we have made the point that you can test more and get more positive cases, but there's a positivity rate. so if the rate of infections as a percentage of all tests goes up, you know there's a problem. so we have tried very hard to give that context with both live interviews on news bulletins and analysis pieces, as well as here are the latest stats. we appreciate it's difficult. sometimes people may feel there's just too much of it. we are trying to take that on board, but equally there are others who if we stopped doing it with state you are trying to hide something, it's always been there all the way through this pandemic. now you have been health editor for i think, about six years, but you have been in journalism for about 30. more than 30 i think. have you ever had a story quite like this covid pandemic? well, i was involved in covering the banking crisis back in 2007 to 2009, and that was the most extraordinarily huge story at

the time. i thought there would never be anything like that. this is much, much bigger because this is global, it affects lives literally, it affects nations health in all different countries. so nothing quite like this before, but i always have to remind myself that we are observers as journalists. there is an astonishing work being done by the nhs and social care, and i can only take my hat off to them and many others in key worker sectors. and many others who have had a very difficult time. so i think ourjob is comparatively easy with regard to all of those people who are having a difficult time sometimes. hugh pym, thank you so much. finally, let's return to the north of england where we started. this week so the retirement of harry gration, who started on bbc radio leeds in 1978. and presented his last addition of look north on wednesday. the day before his 70th birthday. this yorkshire institution

spoke to simon mccoy on the news channel. people tune into us because they trust us, and it's that trusted news service that we give every single day, and the figures have been remarkable as a result of that. i'm so proud, and i mean it genuinely, iam privileged to have presented regional news programmes for so many years. later, he revealed to viewers that he had prepared for his broadcasts by listening to opera, and he brought an example along with him. this is my ditty. forgive the singing, but i'm going to do my best. # welcome to look north, we've got the news and sport. # throw in some weather too. # that's the cheapest we can do. among those paying tribute was rory stanbridge who posted this...

and jon maxwell added... thank you for all your comments this week, if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on the bbc news on tv, radio, online and social media, e—mail. .. or you can find us on twitter... and use the hashtag newswatchbbc. you can call us... and do have a look at our website. that's all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. we had some rain today and it looks unsettled into next week. we have rain coming in followed by sunshine and showers, but this time stronger winds.

all our weather coming in from the atlantic and this is what is heading our way. that hook of cloud is signifying a deepening area of low pressure bringing wind and rain in from the west. the earlier cloud and rain we had is moving away so we will have clearing skies for a while for eastern areas, but the cloud thickening to the west and more rain coming into northern ireland and later into western scotland. almost a repeat of last night, but the rain heavier and the wind and the rain stronger. ahead of that in the clear skies temperatures again down to 4—5. some sunshine perhaps across the midlands and eastern england before that rain moves eastwards and the rain will be heavier. we may get quite a short sharp burst of very heavy rain accompanied by squally winds and as it clears the sunshine comes out and there will be a few showers in the north—west. it will be a windy day and the strongest will be on that band of rain so the winds do ease down a bit later in the northwest as we get that sunshine following on. here there were temperatures of 11—12 and ahead of the rain

in the southeast could be up to 16—17. get the rain during the evening and still quite happy with that then moves away and we still keep an area of low pressure in the northwest. another thing that will change overnight and the early hours of the morning of course the clocks go back an hour or so don't forget that. as you head into early sunday, we have got some wetter, windier weather continuing towards the northwest of the uk and there will be some sunshine around elsewhere and some showers but most of them in southern and western parts of england and into wales. not quite as windy perhaps on sunday but the air is cooler with temperatures a bit lower. into the early part of next week and we still keep that area of low pressure around on sunday. perhaps not quite as deep. the winds not quite as strong, but still some blustery showers for a while blowing into northern ireland across scotland and into england and wales and these could be a little heavy and also thundery too. some sunshine away from the showers in the showers should tend to ease down a bit in the afternoon.

nevertheless not especially warm out there with the temperatures again around 12—14 c.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. as coronavirus infections surge again in europe, the world health organisation issues a new warning. we are at a criticaljuncture in this pandemic. particularly in the northern hemisphere. the next few months are going to be very tough. in the uk, a national lockdown hits 3 million people in wales, the country is under full restrictions now for 16 days. sudan will normalize diplomatic relations with israel , the third arab state to do so in two months. it was a better tempered than their first debate, but donald trump and joe biden still clash over climate change, race relations and coronavirus.