The Daily Politics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Daily Politics | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Current Affairs & Politics |
| Presented by | Andrew Neil & Jenny Scott |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC |
| Original run | 2003 – Present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | This Week |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
The Daily Politics is a British television show launched by the BBC in 2003. Presented by Andrew Neil, the programme takes an in-depth and sometimes irreverent look at the daily goings on in Westminster and other areas across the UK, and includes interviews with leading politicians and political commentators.
Daisy Sampson was Neil's co-presenter until the summer of 2005 when she left to join ITV. Jenny Scott joined as her replacement when the show returned in September of that year, and she leaves in June 2008 to join the Bank of England. Sally Magnusson joined briefly in 2005 as the sole presenter on Friday's episode. The regular reporters are Anne Alexander and Giles Dilnot. Jo Coburn frequently fills in for Jenny Scott in her absence. Other regular contributors to the show include the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson, political correspondent James Landale, and internet expert Alan Connor. Jon Sopel and Eddie Mair have appeared as guest presenters in Andrew Neil's absence.
The Daily Politics is broadcast on BBC Two at a running time of 30 minutes from noon every weekday, apart from Wednesday's episode which starts at 11.30 and runs for 90 minutes in order to show full coverage of Prime Minister's Questions. A novel feature of the programme's analysis of Prime Minister's Questions is the 'Perception Panel' in which viewers can phone in on a freephone number and use their telephone keypads to continuously register their approval and disapproval throughout the session. The mathematical value of viewers' votes are individually and continuously weighted so that the demographic profile of the collected telephone voters matches the demographic profile of the British population. The results are shown on screen either live in real time or else later for 'post-match analysis.'
Most editions feature an e-mail competition where viewers must answer a question for the chance to win a coveted Daily Politics mug. This competition was suspended as per BBC policy in the wake of the Blue Peter phone-in scandal. Now the competition has made a partial return, taking place on the Wednesday edition of the show only. As a result of the policy evaluation, the entries are now picked out of a giant-sized Daily Politics mug instead of a normal mug (after initially using a Daily Politics bucket). Neither the enlarged mug nor the Daily Politics bucket have yet been made available as a prize.
