invite politicians on to our programmes — ex—leaders. ed miliband has been on the bbc this week, for example, nick clegg is a regular guest on our programmesual that we should invite someone on a programme who isn't currently leader of their party. but they are also both mps and nigel farage has never been an mp. yeah, but he is an mep, he has been elected by the british people as an mep by his constituents. and he is also leader of his party ‘s political group in the european parliament, so he is still a person of some influence. a lot of viewers say he is just easy ratings, isn't he? he always has been. and you know when you invite him that he will say something controversial. no, i mean, he represents a strand of political thinking in the united kingdom, there is no doubt about that. as party leader he had a track record of political success, so, for example, his party came first in the european elections in 2014, at the general election in 2015, the party in the popular vote came third. so this is someone... ..we aren't able to exclude from our programmes. he has got a track record of electoral success, and he does represent a strand o