it's also about cost. student maintenance loans have gone up a little hit this year, but nowhere near the cost of living, and for most students, their biggest bill is rent. this busy lettings agency now only has more expensive flats, aimed at the young professional market. now there's not the availability for this year. if they're coming in for the next years, we have the properties on the market for them, but right now, we have nothing for students for this year. the rising cost of living is students�* biggest concern, and housing is part of that. scotland may allow rents to be frozen. in england, the national union of students wants action. the universities really need to take a look at their huge focus on increasing student intake. it is going up exponentially, and the fact is, there is not enough accommodation provided for students.

it's not easy to find quick fixes for housing problems, which could leave some students struggling next year, too. branwen jeffreys, bbc news, manchester. you are watching bbc news now newswatch. hello and welcome to news watch with me, samira ahmed. questions are asked after a news channel presenter talks of her glee during a paper review on the night borisjohnson pulls out of the tory leadership contest. i don't know, i don't think i'll be voting again after what happened to boris johnson. that reporter's staple, the vox pop. do we really need to be told so often what random strangers think? demonstrating impartiality on air, as we discussed on last week's programme, is one of the key goals

and challenges for bbc news. it wasn't long before the fraught nature of that ambition was exposed again, with the addition of the paper review on the news channel on sunday night, shortly before it was broadcast on a day of high political drama, it emerged that borisjohnson had withdrawn from the race to lead the conservative party. this is how the programme started. well, this is all very exciting, isn't it? hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. am i allowed to be this gleeful? well, iam. it's all a bit, you know, lastminute.com, isn't it? because all of the front pages were probably out of date by the time we received them. they're still warm off my printer. later in the programme, some updated newspaper front pages had arrived, with one reporting mr johnson's suggestion that he would be well placed to deliver a conservative victory in 202a. so borisjohnson thinks he should be world king.

of course, he thinks he's best placed to win an election in 202a. he probably thinks he's best placed to win the american election in 202a. laughing sorry. that's all right. i keep on making you laugh. i'm sorry. no, you do. i mean, i shouldn't probably. i'm probably breaking some sort of terrible due impartiality rule by giggling. angela daly thought that martine croxsell had indeed broken the rules there, writing, smiling and giggling. she said, am i allowed to be this gleeful while i am? this was entirely unprofessional conduct for a supposedly neutral news channel. other viewers agreed, including heidi morgan, who recorded this video. martine croaxell was behind

on october the 23rd. must be viewed as unacceptable by the industry and by viewers. stories need to be reported on in an unbiased manner. journalists are not to side with any individual or party. in my view, croaxell�*s behaviour shows poorjudgment and contradicts neutral reporting and possibly breaches the code of conduct on journalism as well. there were also defenders of martine, such asjenny bradley. bbc news were unable to provide someone to talk about this while the matter was being investigated. instead, they pointed us towards the statement which was issued on monday.

as we mentioned last week, the concerns of some of you that a sequence of vox pops featuring those who wanted borisjohnson back as prime minister was not representative of the public�*s views or editorially justified. well, there have been plenty more interviews since then with members of the public. here's a taste of some of them, all from the same 6:00 bulletin on monday, rishi sunak is going to be the new prime minister. what do you think? we need another general election. he's a swing door on number ten. it's all a joke, though, isn't it? i'm a single mum and we're all struggling financially. you just need to, like, get their priorities in order. what do you make of what's been happening in westminster?

i don't think it's been good. i think it's right. you know, we voted for boris johnson and nobody asked us to vote him out and he should have still been. his own mps told him to go. you know, i mean, they're all backstabbers. rishi sunak is a backstabber. here's an anonymous message we received on the newswatch phone line. i and many people i know actively dislike i believe they call them vox pops. i think. where they go out and interview people in the street. now everyone has their own opinion and i don't really want to know what people in the street think, to be honest. i want to know what experts think. there was one where they asked a lady a question and her reply was, "i don't know, i really don't know." and they broadcast it. well, that view was echoed by brian watson, who wrote

and les may had another concern, wondering, are we expected in addition, the need to preserve balance reporting effectively well, let's discuss this with the editor of bbc one news bulletins, paul royle. paul, there's been a lot of vox pops in the past few weeks. too many? i don't necessarily think too many. i mean, there's been a lot of politics around and there's been

a lot of, there's been a lot of probably need to find out what the electorate and the public and our audiences think about what's what's been going on. and if you imagine us taking the public out of our coverage, you would have you would have programmes and content simply full of politicians with some experts as well. but we do need to find out and try and get an insight into what people are thinking about what has been a pretty unprecedented situation in the uk. so we had specific complaints on last week's newswatch that vox pops of tory voters seem to be dominated by boris johnson's supporters, which was unrepresentative and that the coverage could even be accused of fuelling his campaign for a comeback. can you see why? i can see the argument. but that was to do with the place we went to. and so the key here is always being really clear about where you're going, stating the background and context to where you're going.

for example, a labour seat that the conservative party under borisjohnson won in 2019. just be really, really clear about that and then perhaps is not that surprising that you meet a lot of people there who could still be supportive of boris johnson. so it's about being really transparent and upfront about where you're going and who you're talking to. yeah, but it's one of the few is pointed out, you know, pollsters have to show methodology and they have specific formulae that they use. the bbc doesn't have any of those, does it? when it does, vox pops, how are they? well we don't, we don't claim that they are that it's an exact science. we're really clear about where we're going, who we're talking to. and actually to use the pollsters or the market research example, they do use qualitative research as well as quantative research.

and so it wouldn't be true to say they don't use qualitative research because obviously that can at times garner the insights that sums up a particular situation. and so if we were going to sort of airbrush vox pops out of all our coverage, for example, brenda from brenda from bristol in april 2017, when theresa may called an election in three words, perhaps encapsulated what some or a lot of the population were thinking. and perhaps maybe theresa may should be another one. is that when she saif "not another one." yeah. what about stereotypes, though? because i can get the sense from talking to you that there's an element of atmosphere and colour that you get with vox pops. but we have had complaints over the years that stereotypes emerge in vox pop. so for example, canvassing scottish women voters in a beauty parlor and northern cliches, interviewing people in a working men's club. well, obviously we try and avoid stereotyping and cliches. and actually what i would say is, you know, these these pieces

can be difficult to do. and we've got correspondents, very experienced correspondents. the two clips you played, alex forsyth and ed thomas, who really understand the political and social context of the places they're going to. and we don'tjust go to one location or talk to a single group of people. in fact, all the pieces we've had over the last couple of weeks that they've also included businesses and business leaders. the piece you played from alex earlier also had a a tory member, an activist in it. and so we do try and get a range and get a real sense of the place and obviously try and avoid any sense of stereotyping. i'm interested in and i think a lot of viewers are interested in whether the bbc really monitors who gets used in vox pops and what it reveals. yes, we do monitor and evaluate and assess where we go to, and we do that over time and and who we're talking to. and there's a particular thing, i guess, with television news bulletins where you're trying

to encapsulate a range of public opinion and insight, which is adding to understanding of the story, perhaps in two and a half or 3 minutes, as opposed to, say, question time, where you can get insights and an audience feedback, say, over an hour or the nicky campbell phone in on five live and that sort of format. so there are particular challenges around television news bulletins, but in people alex forsyth and ed thomas, we have really experienced expert correspondents who are able to deliver that for us. thank you. paul royle, thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news, on tv, radio, online and social media email newswatch at bbc.co.uk or you can find us on twitter at newswatch bbc. you can call us no. 3700106676. and you have a look at our website, bbc.co.uk slash newswatch. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye.

good evening. well it was a pretty decent day of weather across most of the country today. overnight tonight we've got some dry weather, clear skies around initially but through the early hours of cloud and rain pushing and across parts of the southwest and drifting north in towards the midlands. and a bit of mist of murk with that too. wiping murk with that too. temperatures on the mild side. wiping temperatures on the mild side. ., ., , ., wiping temperatures on the mild side. ., ., . , side. for many towns and cities. first thing _ side. for many towns and cities. first thing tomorrow, _ side. for many towns and cities. first thing tomorrow, that - side. for many towns and cities. first thing tomorrow, that band | side. for many towns and cities. i first thing tomorrow, that band of cloud and rain continuing to track its way northwards. wendy for a timer on the far southwest. brightening up in the southeast with some sunshine but notice that cloud and rain pushing north across northern ammon and into southern parts of scotland, the central belt too. in the sunshine in the southeast feeling warm, 22 degrees. sunshine for the north as well, a bit cooler here compared to elsewhere. looking ahead to sunday. we have this line of cloud and ran across parts of the southeast. i could well linger into the

afternoon. behind it, a with some sunshine and a rash of showers pushing across western parts of the country. those could well be heavy with the odd rumble of thunder and a somewhat cooler feel, has a 15-17 and a somewhat cooler feel, has a 15—17 celsius.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the uk government will call a snap election in northern ireland, after politicians in the devolved government failed to restore power—sharing at stormont. a date hasn't yet been announced. a 42—year—old man is charged with attempted murder, after the husband of the us democratic house speaker nancy pelosi was attacked in their california home. a new wave of deadly clashes in iran — with security forces firing on protestors. there have been a number of confirmed injuries, but it's not known how many people have been killed. a woman who murdered and decapitated herfriend, before dumping her body in a suitcase, has been sentenced to life in jail. jemma mitchell is the first murderer to be sentenced on television in england and wales.