The new Crimean War, national socialists in Ukraine, UKIP, Wacko, and sturnus borealis

Last night's Newsnight was a classic of its kind.

First up, Ukraine and Russia's military activity in Crimea. The programme began by asking if Russia's deployment of troops in Crimea could escalate into war with Ukraine. Thankfully, diplomatic editor (and military historian) Mark Urban [who managed to survive Ian Katz's cull] was on hand to dampen down the sensationalism of its introduction. 

Gabriel Gatehouse's subsequent investigation into the role of role of the far-right in Ukraine was a case of Newsnight (and the BBC more generally) starting, very belatedly, to catch up with warnings many people online and in sections of the press have been sounding for weeks (and, at Harry's Place, for months). The BBC happily clapped while the 'revolution' was ongoing, downplaying or ignoring completely the pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic elements who spearheaded the anti-government violence and helped make the 'revolution' possible. 

Gabriel talked to several such groups, with individuals openly admiring National Socialism, and blaming the Jews and Russians for controlling the economy, and pointed to the 'Heil Hitler' iconography worn by leaders of the nationalist Svoboda party, which now holds four posts in the new government (including, rather worryingly, the defence ministry).

The BBC isn't usually slow to focus on far-right groups or to make them the centre of a story. The fact that they were so slow to do so here could again be put down to blindness (bias?) on their part, caused perhaps by their over-enthusiasm for the pro-EU/anti-Russian Ukrainian protests. 

From Svoboda to UKIP...

...a party which no sane person could ever accuse Newsnight of being biased towards - as this edition again so graphically demonstrated.

A report from their spring conference from Newsnight began with a stunt about a fruitcake and with Newsnight reporter Zoe Conroy asking Nigel Farage, "Are you a fruitcake-free party?", on the back of it. Then it was onto questions about why they'd "borrowed the BNP's 'Love Britain'" slogan. [Did they really 'borrow' it, Zoe? Or is that a smear?] Then Zoe, though reporting from this year's conference, showed clips of Godfrey Bloom at last year's conference, and recalled 'Bongo Bongo Land' and 'sluts' [without mentioning that he'd had the part whip withdrawn from him by UKIP]. Various UKIP figures then had to defend their party on camera before Zoe said the party "was in no dangerous of seeming too PC today" with Nigel Farage making "one of his strongest attacks on immigration policy". 

"But it was questions about the role of campaign director Neil Hamilton, the former Tory MP who took cash for questions, which got the party leadership rattled. Could he really be the face of the new UKIP?", Zoe said, before taking the lead in stirring up this little controversy, including at the press conference with Nigel Farage. Was she the journo Nigel accused of being "obsessed with it?". I think she was. 

Nigel Farage was due to be interviewed on Newsnight last night but (as Emily Maitlis put it), he cancelled the interview after that press conference. UKIP's press office said that was because they "didn't want to dwell on the wrong issues" - which, given Zoe Conway's report and Newsnight's past record of reporting UKIP, is exactly what Emily Maitlis would have made him do. 

Newsnight always treats UKIP this way. I blame it on the boogie bias.

Finally, it was onto the issue of corporal punishment and the question, 'So is beating character-forming, or is that just claptrap?' 

One of Ian Katz's all-women panels discussed the matter, with Emily interviewing "author" Kathy ('Am I right, girls?)' Lette and "novelist and parenting author" Anne ('Thought for the Day') Atkins. 

Poor Anne Atkins was talked over right, left and centre by Emily Maitlis and Kathy Lette, who really should have been taught at school to behave with more respect and wait her turn. (Alex Ferguson's teacher, Mrs Thomson, might have known how to deal with her!)

You can read what Sir Alex Ferguson actually told the Times Education Supplement here. Newsnight was guilty of sensationalising what he said.

Finally, it was the newspaper front pages: The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph and The Times (in that order), before ending with images of starlings swirling and the aurora borealis over Britain the night before, accompanied by hip music.