in 1994 he became one of the main presenters of radio 4's "today" programme. shortly before the 2005 general election he opened a question to labour politician ed balls "if we win the election...", quickly correcting himself to say "if you win the election". the incident led to accusations of bias towards the labour party and a failure to be neutral. lord tebbit said of the incident: "how often a slip of the tongue betrays the true thoughts in the mind of the speaker. we could all see the shape of the cat in the bag, but mr naughtie has now let it out for all to see." he has a distinctive scottish accent which has been named as the "best voice to wake up to" in a comparative survey. his practice of asking particularly long questions is sometimes noted by commentators.