Question: What's your reaction to the row between the BBC and the government.

Nick Harvey: The government could be made to look very silly indeed. They've lost the plot completely. Downing Street seems to me to be shoot at ghosts; at things that aren't really there.

Question: The Communications Bill also raised the issue of the relationship between the BBC and the government. How do you see it changing in the future?

Nick Harvey: Once the bill has been put to bed the next significant broadcasting issue on the agenda is the process of charter renewal. If the BBC and the government are in open war then that's a pretty worrying start. And that's not forgetting the fact that the Tories are also at war with the BBC.

I suppose the BBC will be pleased to have them both after it. The Tory party are having meetings with the BBC because Duncan Smith says they are biased against them all the damn time.

The Conservatives have been sabre rattling right the way through the Communications Bill. It's expressly clear that they really want to see the BBC privatised, stripped of the licence fee and charging for its services.

The government has not had any of those ideas but if it gets into a pointless spat with the BBC then you have to fear quite where it's all going to get to.

Question: Labour says the BBC is against them and the Conservatives say the BBC is against them. How does the BBC stand with the Liberal Democrats?

Nick Harvey: The Lib Dems would take quite the same view. We've gone apoplectic when the third voice in any news story has been left out - particularly recently with the Peter Hain and the higher tax for top earners story. It's been Liberal Democrat policy for the last few years. On a succession of BBC programmes we got no opportunity to put our point across. This was followed days later by the student tuition fees saga where the Tories seem to have convinced the BBC with the idea that they have come up with something new, ignoring the fact that we have objected to tuition fees since they began and have used our position in Scotland to ensure they are not paid by Scottish students.

These are two issues in a row where the BBC cast us out of a story where we would have expected to have been principle players. We've been making some quite vigorous representations to the BBC ourselves.

Whether the BBC will take the view that if all three main political parties are after it then they are getting something right I don't know.

Question: What possible solutions for the BBC are there?

Nick Harvey: There isn't one really. The BBC has a worldwide reputation for accuracy and objectivity. From time to time that's bound to mean that it's going to rub up against politicians.

I remember Thatcher's fury that they were not reporting the Falklands war in a jingoistic, nationalistic kind of way. I think any incumbent government will come up against the BBC if it is doing its job properly.

Question: The BBC's board of governors are appointed by the government. What is your view on this?

Nick Harvey: That is a problem. The appointment of the chairman of the governors and the director-general has for years looked rather too much to be in the gift of government. And if they appoint people like Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke - both known to be Labour supporters - you are inevitably going to get a row at the time even though they have both gone out of their way to show they are not the government's poodles.

Question: What position have the Liberal Democrats taken on the future of the BBC?

Nick Harvey: We are firmly committed to public service broadcasting. We welcome the coming of the digital multi-channel world and the diversity and choice that it brings with it but there remains a vital role for public service broadcasting with the BBC as the cornerstone of that.

With the licence fee it's perfectly right that we take a look at it periodically but if you look at the revenues going into the TV industry advertising part of it, subscription is another part of it and the licence fee is the third part of it.

Each are worth broadly the same as each other - around £3 billion a year. If you were to knock one of those clean out - as the Conservatives are arguing for - then the impact on British television would be devastating.

If the BBC were to be forced into the advertising market that would have terrifying consequences on channels three, four and five. It would also make a dent in the advertising revenues of digital TV stations as well.

The advertising market is not infinite and if the BBC decides to go and compete in it, then that would be very bad news for all the other players that are dependant on advertising.

Question: Would that leave three or four big players dominating?

Nick Harvey: Yes. I would have thought broadcasters like Channel 4 would just go straight down the pan. ITV would be left fighting pretty hard. A commercialised BBC would probably just slog it out with Sky I should think.

Question: Do you think the final Communications bill will actually make any difference?

Nick Harvey: I think the original design of the bill was right. What was so alarming was the government at the eleventh hour suddenly introducing a revolution in ownership rules that had never been part of the white paper.

Presuming the government more or less getting their way on this I think it will have a profound impact. You will fairly swiftly get a foreign owner of a unified ITV. I wouldn't be surprised if you get Rupert Murdoch owning Channel Five. In five years time broadcasting will look very different. Those new foreign owners will not be as easy to regulate in terms of content or format as traditional UK broadcasters have been.

I hope Ofcom will develop into a regulator capable of flexing some muscle but I would have given it a few years before letting the loins out of the cage.

Question: Do you think the Liberal Democrats have failed to capitalise on the government's current difficulties?

Nick Harvey: At this point in the parliament we are doing a lot better than have in the mid-point of the last few parliaments. Our opinion poll rating is consistently above 20 per cent. In the last parliament at this point we were on 12 or 13 per cent.

I think Charles Kennedy's own poll rating is robust and we've had our best set of results in the May elections. While I agree we haven't run away a poll lead like in the heyday of the Alliance nevertheless we're in a much healthier position than we were four years ago.

Question: So you think the party is making steady progress rather than going through boom and bust?

Nick Harvey: Yes. It is steady progress in an upward direction. At this stage in a parliament you would expect a government to be in trouble and the official Opposition to be riding high. Thatcher was often as much as 20 points behind.

For Blair to be four points ahead is not comfortable but it's not a calamity. With the Conservatives 33 per cent may be better than the general election result but they privately are bitterly disappointed not to be doing better at this stage.

Question: What are the key issues for the party now?

Nick Harvey: Public services. The government is making a big investment but we will concentrate our attack on what is being done with the money; why services aren't improving as quickly as they should and why the government continues to micro-manage from Whitehall. The control freakery of New Labour will be one of our lines of attack.