A Spectator's Notebook
THE PREPOSTEROUS BBC policy of ignoring the existence of by-elec- tions—and, indeed, of general elec- tions apart from the `party political broadcasts'—looked for a moment earlier this week like suffering a rebuff. Granada, the Manchester weekday ITV programme contractors, had arranged a series of programmes covering the Rochdale by-election. The snags were numerous (any suspicion of political partiality would have been directly contrary to the Television Act), but looked like being overcome; even the rocked- ribbed conservatism of the Labour Party was eventually punctured. The day before the first prograMme, however, the plans fell through. The Television Act, it seems, was satisfied; but the Representation of the People Act had reared its .ugly' head. When last heard of, the question was being examined by the Attorney-General, which does not preoisely augur the best possible solution of the problem. For the life of me I cannot see What the trouble is. If newspaper coverage of electionS, which is frequently electioneering of the crudest kind, is not subject to the limitations of Candidates' expenditure, why on earth should a scrupulously balanced television programme be? Of course, this is for television) no ordinary by- electron; Mr. Ludovic Kennedy, the Liberal can- didate, is hiniself a former television newscaster of some repute. But why should that affect the issue? Mr. Frank Owen has been an editor (of about nineteen different papers, as a matter of fact); yet nobody would raise an eyebrow at news- paper coverage of his attempts to get into Parlia- ment as a Liberal for Hereford.
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