To save his blushes, I will not name the BBC Westminster correspondent who was sent to Brussels 6 weeks before the 2014 Euro-elections to cover them at EU end. I spent an hour trying to explain the basics of EU functioning to him, he hadn’t a clue and it was Ladybird book level.
Or the one sent much earlier as Europe editor who I only saw once in 3 years in the Parliament; after that (even though we MEPs had ‘co-decision’ powers on laws), this person found the Council & Commission a much easier, less complicated, gig
One problem seems to be a lack of clarity on the extent to which the ‘Europe’ editor & correspondents have a focus on and expertise in the workings and dynamics of the EU machinery as opposed to covering news stories in individual Member States
And political coverage/representation of MEPs - except of course UKIP/Brexit party who would put on a show by being clowns - has been woeful. BBC has never treated sensible MEPs as mainstream UK politicians, only as ‘exotics from Brussels’.
The only BBC TV prog devoted to MEPs - called The Record Europe & anyway broadcast on obscure channels at weird times of the night mainly - was axed on the promise of lots more representation of MEPs on @BBCPolitics. Ha bloody ha.
