“I wish to register a complaint…” are the opening words of Monty Python’s famous Parrot sketch.  A man has bought a parrot, which is clearly dead.  We are never told how he was tricked into believing it was ever alive.  The pet shop owner promises it is “resting”, “pining for Norwegian fjords” and deploys grandiose, Boris Johnson style, language in this pretence.

People register complaints with broadcasters and regulators about what they see and hear on television every day.  Many complaints are about political news content.

The UK Business Insider reports the three moments connected to the referendum campaign that attracted most complaints.

Top of the league is the debate between Cameron and Farage on ITV on 16 June.   661 people complained.  Objections centred around Cameron speaking after Farage, thereby addressing some of his points, and hostility of audience questions to Farage.

Ofcom’s response was:

Mr Farage had the opportunity to respond freely and was only interrupted when he hadn’t responded to an aspect of a question, or in order to move the questioning on. We noted the presenter took a similar approach to questioning David Cameron. We therefore found the programme to be duly impartial and will not be investigating.

Second, was Vote Leave’s “Which NHS” broadcast, which showed an old lady going to hospital in the present and in an alternative reality outside the EU, with an extra £350m per week spent on it. 230 people complained, with many pointing out the falsity of the £350m figure.

Ofcom replied that it had no jurisdiction over political broadcasts:

The requirement for due accuracy applies only to news programmes. As these broadcasts were not news programmes, we will not be taking these complaints forward for investigation.

Third was Nigel Farage’s interview on Good Morning on 15 July, three weeks after the result, and the morning after the Bastille Day attack in Nice.

176 people complained. Complaints alleged that unfair questions were put to Farage, in particular whether he had stoked racial tension in the campaign.

Ofcom said:

We found Mr Farage was given an opportunity to respond, and firmly rebutted these claims. We therefore won’t be investigating, because due impartiality was maintained.

It is interesting that the complainants in the first and third matters, presumably mainly committed UKIP, Farage or Leave supporters alleged unfairness in certain questions.  They complained about unfairness to their person.

In the second matter the complainants, presumably mainly committed Remain supporters alleged unfairness in certain factual assertions.  They complained about unfairness by a campaign.

Those distinctions may well be indicative of the very different mind-sets of activists on each side and what seemed important to them.

* Antony Hook was #2 on the South East European list in 2014, is the English Party's representative on the Federal Executive and produces this sites EU Referendum Roundup.