More PowerPoint election 'news' from the BBC

If BBC television news has given up on showing us much from speeches (see previous post and links to others), their obsession with inflicting information overload on us via PowerPoint style presentations shows no sign of abating (for more on which, see below).

Last night, 10 o'clock newsreader Huw Edwards was out on location in front of Cardiff castle, from where he sent us "live from our health correspondent" (back in the studio) for a "reality check on health policy" - i.e. a slide-dependent lecture punctuated by a few words of wisdom from an 'expert'.

After watching it through once, wait five minutes and then see how many of her handy facts you can remember.

Or, if that's too painful, give it marks out of ten according to how well you think this 'news report' did in fulfilling each of the aims of the BBC as specified in its Royal Charter, namely 't0 inform, educate and entertain'.

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Brown speaks and the BBC doesn't tell you what he says

A post at the start of the election - Blair speaks and the BBC tells you what he says - illustrated the continuing reluctance of British television news programmes to show us anything more than the briefest excerpts from speeches by politicians.

Another example from Newsnight was posted as Silent speeches by party leaders: the wallpaper of television news coverage.

On last night's BBC 10 o'clock News, there was another similar gem with political editor Nick Robinson standing on a balcony whispering about Gordon Brown's election strategy, while the PM himself was speaking, presumably about something else, to an audience down on the floor below (bottom left of the screen).

Local election news: is the horse manure coming home to roost?

Election gossip from from our village shop today is about an interesting question put to the local Tory candidate, David Heathcote-Amory while he was canvassing a farmer:

"What do you want? A bag of horse muck?"

True or not, the fact that the story tells of a farmer raising the question about one of Mr Heathcote-Amory's more famous expenses claims must worry a candidate defending a 3,000 majority in a Con/LibDem marginal seat (Wells) - where most farmers tend to vote Conservative.

But it does rather confirm my earlier suggestions that it would have made more sense for him to have sourced the horse manure locally (HERE) rather than from Highgrove in Gloucestershire.