Well, imjoined by nick robinson, the presenter of the today programme, and host of the political thinking podcast. Nick, do you think that presenters are a bit too focused and their political interviews on a gotcha moment . Well, your two contributors there captured the sort of tight rope that we are constantly on. I do think there is a tendency in the era of social media to go for the gotcha moment that can be clipped up. I get sent an e mail every morning from one National Newspaper with clips of my interviews. Theyve described me as slamming politicians, raging at them, scolding at them, exploding at them. I despair if that is what an interview is really thought to be about. We are trying to get answers to questions, we are trying to get some sort of understanding. We ended up in the bizarre thing that at the last general election the most memorable interview in that election was an interview that did not actually happen. Andrew neils with borisjohnson. Now, this is madness if what we say is the most important moment is when a question was not asked at all. This podcast, political thinking, that you are doing, what is that trying to do differently, then . Its trying to add to, not replace, let me stress, what i do every day on the today programme, and people do on newsnight, or world at one, or pm on the news channel and elsewhere. Its trying to say, let us get underneath the skin of a politician. Lets try to get a sense of what their upbringing, what their background, what their values are and how that contributes to their political thinking. Because often, if you understand that rishi sunak worked in his mums pharmacy, is now married to a billionaires daughter, is a great fan of star wars, you get a sense of who he is. If, for example, this week you interview, as i have, the mayor of Liverpool City Region and you get the rage he feels about Boris Johnson and the comments that he made in the past about liverpool and the hillsborough disaster, you get much more of a sense of why, for him to now work with a tory government regarded by many people in liverpool as something you should never, ever do, you get a sense of who he is and why the choices hes got to make are so difficult. One of the complaints that we heard in the two comments i read at the beginning was from a viewer who thinks that, actually, bbc interviewers too often let politicians get away with not answering the question, talking out the time. What would you say . Well, it is complete we get all the time, and we also get people saying you interrupt too much. And they are both two sides of the same coin. We cannot force people to answer, theres this myth that if ijust ask it well enough, or sharply enough to i will get an answer. I wont. I think we have to treat the audience like grown ups. We have to ask difficult questions, we occasionally have to ask them two or three times. We have to highlight when we dont get an answer, but we need to treat the audience as people who can observe that they have not got the answer and then we move on. What we should not do is talk over politicians such that people would end up wondering, well why did he have them on in the first place . If you think they are not worth listening to, if you think theyve got nothing to say, why have them on your programme . And more to the point, why should they bother to turn up at all . In other words, its a bit like a dance, an interview. It does take both sides to tango. Well, sometimes they dont bother to turn up at all. And a big concern, i think its fair to say, over much of the past year is that this government has not been playing, always, by the traditional rules. That ministers were not appearing on the today programme, for example, for many months. Is yourjob more difficult now do you think . Well, it is easier for politicians, theres no doubt, to dodge interviews they dont want to do. Yes, they boycotted the today programme, they boycotted gmb the Itv Breakfast programme for a while, they rarely turn up on newsnight and on channel 4 news, for example. Although, i cant help noticing that since a certain, what was his name, dominic cummings, has found a new mode of employment, has left downing street, they have returned to all of those programmes. Given all the dilemmas we have, you mentioned interruptions, do you think that there is still a case with viewers that feel that still too often journalists can be to route and interrupt crucially too much . Well, of course. If you cant listen and you cant pay attention, and frankly if you end up shouting a radio, or telly, or turning them off, then we are doing something wrong, arent we . Equally, people who get frustrated with interviewers have to realise that politicians have tactics. Ive seen politicians look at the clock. Look away from me or the camera, and they head for, as it were, the white tape in the race. In order that we wont be able to get another question in. So sometimes we interrupt for a purpose. For a reason. To try to get answers. And itjust commit to mix my metaphors, just reminds me of what i said at the beginning of this interview, it is a tight rope. On the one hand, you want to make sure that the people have the chance to hear the person thats the interviewer, the interviewee, and on the other hand you need to make sure that your questions are not ignored, that people at home dont feel frustrated, that the points they feel should be made and should be put to politicians have not been put. The reason i wrote an article about it in the last few days is that i believe the interview, despite the growth of social media, despite the fact that politicians can communicate directly to people remains one of the most important ways that we have a sense of what people in power are doing, and it underpins our democracy. And its important they show up, its important to answer the questions, but its also important that we give them the chance to speak. Nick robinson, thanks so much. Since the pandemic started, bbc news has occasionally featured a personal and often emotional reports about the personal impact of the virus on peoples well being. They have not always been welcomed by viewers, with linda and paul canning writing to us a couple of weeks ago. Others, though, have a much more positive response to this of journalism, an example of which was shown on mondays news bulletins. I go into houses, and i sometimes have children ripping the bags open to get the food as im carrying them to the door. And its not all right, that. Thats not all right. And it wasnt as bad as that before the virus. That report from ed thomas received plaudits from a number of newswatch viewers, including Gillian Robbins who wrote. Jane brown agreed, and made a plea shared by other viewers. Well, for all of those who wanted to know how . They can help some of those in need for the charity featured in that report is called church on the streets ministries in burnley. Finally, a follow up to last weeks item about coverage of the chancellors spending review. And of economics in general. On monday, it emerged that 2a leading economists had written to the bbc director general, tim davie, following these comments by Laura Kuenssberg on politics live. I mean, isjust absolutely, eye wateringly enormous, and if you think the debate that we had, really from the late noughties, all the way through to the 2015 election, you know, that was defined by, how is the country going to pay back what we had to borrow, and the credit crisis. This is that, and some. This is the credit card, the national mortgage, everything absolutely maxed out. Well, according to that group of economists, this was an inappropriate way to describe the public finances. In response, a bbc spokeswoman said. 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, e mail us at. Or you can find us on twitter at. You can call us on. And you have a look at our website. Thats all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc News Coverage again next week. Goodbye. Hello there. Its been a wintry scene for many parts of the uk. We started with some widespread snow in scotland. That then turned to rain and so the most of any snow thats falling right now is really over the higher ground. But, more recently, there has been some snow through the midlands, particularly over the peak district. But its been a messy picture because weve had these bands of cloud bringing wet weather swirling around an area of low pressure together with some stronger winds. That low pressure, though, will tend to move down into france, so, for a start, the winds will ease and through the weekend we should be turning drier as well. But were still in cold air. With some clearing skies by the morning across some parts the midlands, eastern england, we are likely to find a frost and likely to find some icy conditions as well. Elsewhere across the uk, it wont be quite as chilly, not going to be as cold as last night in scotland. Theres more cloud around, theres wetter weather too. And the wetter weather across wales, western england will become confined to the south west. We have a few showers breaking out, running into some eastern coasts of england but for many, it will be turning dry with some sunshine. The weather improving in Northern Ireland as well and those showers in scotland becoming fewer with sunshine especially in the south west. Another chilly day, not as windy as it was on friday but those temperatures 4 7 degrees. Heading into the evening, clearer skies in the evening allowing those temperatures to fall quickly but we are likely to find some cloud and wetter weather just running into the far east of scotland and into the north east of england as well. Thatll keep the temperatures up here, perhaps, but elsewhere were likely to find frost, probably more widely, and it brings the risk of some icy patches as well. Not only that, but quite foggy by the morning and across the south east of england, east anglia. That should tend to lift, perhaps only into low cloud, mind you. And we will still keep some cloud coming into the north east of england, perhaps the midlands, bringing with it a few showers. The odd shower around elsewhere but also some sunshine. Probably the best temperatures will be in wales and the south west, 8, maybe 9 degrees but in the cloud further east, its going to be colder, around 4 celsius or so. Early next week, weve got one area of low pressure running to the south west of the uk, another one threatening to come in off the north sea. And that will bring some wetter weather probably on tuesday into parts of scotland, but early next week, generally it is going to be dry. It is going to be cold and could be quite grey, with some patches of persistent fog. This is bbc news, our top stories new lockdown on the streets of San Francisco to help curb a surge in coronavirus cases. Brexit trade talks are pause after eu and uk negotiators failed to reach agreement. President trump orders the withdrawal of nearly all us troops from somalia. Officials there call it a morale boost for terraced. And a special report from beirut four months after the explosion that the government knew that the dangerous chemicals