Today in Parliament
One of the reasons that the proceedings of the House of Commons are increas- ingly despised is the way that the BBC reports them. When the right to broadcast parliamentary proceedings was first granted, 'Yesterday in Parliament' was a scrupulously careful programme, quoting speeches in some detail and without com- ment. Now the programme is compered by BBC political journalists who take up too much of the time with their own voices and broadcast only the more lurid bits of the parliamentary day. No doubt the BBC would argue that they are only trying to make Parliament more interesting to listeners, which certainly is a difficult task; but that is different from the argument made at the time that Parliament ought to be broadcast to improve public knowledge of its proceedings. The change gives a muted warning of the horrors which would follow if MPs were foolish enough to allow their proceedings to be televised.
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