Public life and private feuds

I've had a good deal of respect for Kirsty Wark. She's been one of Scotland's most effective broadcast journalists for a long time. This Thursday, she interviewed Scotland's new, democratically elected, first minister. And the result was extraordinary.

We all know, of course, that Wark has had close relationships with recent Scottish Labour leaders. She was a personal friend of Donald Dewar, and was appointed to him to the committee that chose a Spanish design for the new Scottish parliament building (and incidentally granted by his adminsitration the contract to record the process of building it). She is a personal friend of Jack McConnell, and has invited him to holiday with her in her villa.

I hadn't previously been aware of personal disamity between Wark and Alex Salmond. Looking back, there are reasons. Alex Salmond, from the beginning, opposed the idea of a new parliament building, arguing that it was unnecessary and unaffordable - and in at least the latter of those two judgements, he's proved to be prescient. The parliament, not surprisingly, chose to enquire into the overspend, and the enquiry asked Ms Wark's company to release all the material she had recorded of the construction process. Ms Wark refused. Mr Salmond said, in polite language, that Wark was concealing the record to protect herself and her friends. And of course Mr Salmond has commented - with typical derision and wit - on Mr McConnell's holidays.

That's a quick summary of the main reasons - as far as I know - that Ms Wark might be unable to control her personal feelings about Mr Salmond. But the fact is - this interview demonstrates - that she seems to be unable.

So the interview: what happened? Well, at the moment you can assess it for yourself, because the programme is still available on the BBC's website. This won't always be so, so I'll summarise as best I can.

Tony Blair has this week entered into an agreement with President Gaddafi of Libya which covers, inter alia, an agreement to work towards the repatriation of prisoners - and refers explicitly to the three jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. This, obviously, refers to al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, and the only Libyan prisoner in the UK not in an English prison. Blair apparently did not consult the Scottish government before entering into this agreement, and Salmond reported this to the parliament - as one would expect him to. The leaders of all Scotland's opposition parties - including McConnell - supported Salmond in his position.

Kirsty Wark interviewed Salmond about this. That's reasonable. She started with the premis that this was a non-story - that nothing concrete had been agreed, and there was no reason for Blair to have consulted. That, too is reasonable. It is the job of political journalists to test politicians.

Salmond's performance is Salmond's performance. He is very good at being cool and reasonable under pressure. He answered all questions, fully, calmly and reasonably. We know he's very good at this. He was, as usual, completely on top of his brief. He didn't poke fun; he didn't make jokes; and beyond repeatedly pointing out that he had announced the things Wark was accusing him of concealing in open parliament, didn't mock Ms Wark.

Wark, by contrast, started by being wapish and vituperative; moved onto ranting; and when that still didn't dent Salmond's calm, cut him off without any pretence of good manners. I have seen politicians 'lose it' in television interviews before, but I think this is the first time I have seen an interviewer - completely - lose it.

The BBC's official response to this? Well, to be fair they have apologised to Mr Salmond. But publicly they say "...for most of the interview I don't think we strayed outside the boundaries of what viewers expect or find acceptable in a Newsnight interview." If that is so, heaven help them.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is inevitably in a difficult position when faced with a democrativally elected separatist administration. The BBC's brief to report the news impartially conflicts with it's role as an institution of the unionist establishment. That, inevitably, presents editorial challenges.

It's not wrong for the BBC to be biased against the SNP. It's natural and inevitable for the BBC to be biased against the SNP. But even so, nation should speak peace unto nation, and Ms Wark is clearly unable to do that.

Every journalist has political views. Every journalist who takes a keen interest in politics - as a newshight presenter must - must have decided political views. But I would remind you of Brian Redhead's interview with Nigel Lawson. A good journalist should never let her personal views - or personal friendships or enmities - taint her journalism.

What we saw in this interview was not professional. It's sad, because Ms Wark has a considerable record as a fine journalist and I used to see her as a good ambassador for Scotland. But she has allowed personal feeling to overcome professional conduct. She can no longer speak peace. For the sake of the BBC, and for the sake of good relations between Scotland and the other constituent nations of the United Kingdom, she really can no longer be employed to work on political stories which affect Scotland.

It's sad, but she's got to go. This sort of performance helps no-one.