I have written to the Director General of the BBC Mark Thompson after reading his article in the Mail on Sunday which explained why the BBC had decided to give more coverage to UKIP.

He said: “When I joined the BBC as DG, I thought our coverage of Europe was deficient. There was too little - and too much of what there was tended to view Europe through the lens of Westminster politics.

By the stopwatch, Eurosceptics may have had their share of the debate but there was too little curiosity about the different shades of sceptical opinion and too little seriousness given to those who believed that the right thing for the UK to do was to leave the EU altogether.

We've responded by appointing Mark Mardell in the new role of Europe editor, by delivering more consistent coverage of the work of the European institutions and by exploring the views of UKIP and other shades of Eurosceptic opinion more regularly and thoroughly."

This seems utterly bizarre to me and suggests that the BBC’s coverage before Mr Thompson became Director General was biased in favour of Europe, which it clearly wasn’t.

He himself admits that Eurosceptics received as much coverage but does not really explain why he felt the need to give more credence to UKIP, a fringe party who still haven’t got close to winning a seat in the House of Commons, even in a by-election.

I have also enquired if he will balance the BBC’s increased coverage of “shades of Euroscepticism” by covering more shades of pro-European opinions including federalists, neo-federalist, intergovernmentalists, status quo supporters, wideners and deepeners.

I await his response with interest (which I will of course publish on here!).