Microphones, Bigotry and Bureaucracy
I took a quick break from rehearsing for The Politics Show live hustings in Dorchester yesterday and popped outside still wearing my radio mic. These little devices are devilishly clever at picking up your every word but they're also a faff to put on, as you feed the wire down your shirt and around the waistband to the transmitter pack.
Cabinet Minister Jim Knight started to chat about what people were telling him on the doorstep, when he spotted the tiny black mic on my shirt. "Is that on?...."
Oh, how the Prime Minister must regret not taking his radio mic off, or realizing his bigot comments might still be heard. But was it really his fault?
These things are always operated on an element of trust. You wear it, but expect some discretion from the person overhearing your conversation at the other end. Especially if your break from filming is to answer the call of nature.
Charles Moore writes in today's Daily Telegraph how he feels broadcasters broke the rules of confidentiality - that if it had been a BBC microphone the recording might never have come to light.
He ridicules the BBC's rules as "bureaucracy" but others would say they're there to establish what should and shouldn't be recorded.
Or was Gordon Brown's comment fair game?
Welcome to the hustings! I'm Peter Henley, the BBC's political reporter in the south of England. From parish councils in Sussex, to European politics in Oxford, this is the blog for you. 
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