BBC Captioning of Gordon Brown

It has become quite a contentious issue over in the 'Gordon Brown' thread.

Several news corporations seem to be labelling him as 'Next Prime Minister' or 'Prime Minister Elect'.

Several people have pointed out that this could be factually incorrect.

But is it more important to be clear that GB is expected to become Prime Minister?

Barring the proverbial London Bus (or equivalent for 2007) he'll be the Next PM but as with everything Blair touches he's set a precident. Constitutionally he's still Chancellor of the Exchequer so that's how he should be referred to.when captioned. Verbally he could be referred to as the unopposed next PM though.

Do news organisations have some form of database of the persons name along with a tag line for them?

Always wondered why they give the name of everyone with the exception of George Bush and Tony Blair, never see a name strap for these two on either News 24 or Sky News.

It's probably best to simply caption him as "A Friend of the McCanns".

That would put the relative importance of all the news stories into the correct perspective.

Would "Prime Minister Designate" be appropriate?



It's probably assumed that they are universally recognized in the UK. In the US, the president and the vice president are almost never labeled. I assume the same is also true for the Queen and (possibly) Prince Charles in the UK, right?

The Royals rarely give off-the-cuff interviews as it is. The Queen doesn't need one as the only time she gives speeches to camera are at pre-organised events and Christmas. She rarely if ever gives one-off interviews to the media.

Prince Philip also doesn't give one-off interviews but he is known to spend a lot of time in the media for making comments about certain sections of society that trigger huge rows elsewhere.

I believe in the UK its only Tony Blair, George Bush and well-known members of the Royal Family who don't get astons if they're the main contributor in a scene. Gordon Brown tends to get one randomly I've noticed. David Cameron and Menzies Campbell always get astons.

Until recently it was unusual for the BBC to aston the leader of the opposition - and in some cases they also didn't aston Lib Dem leader (so they were equally un-astoned). However when Campbell and Cameron both arrived at the same time it was probably felt that most people didn't know who they were - so astoning was a requirement.

AIUI the BBC don't aston the Pope, the US President, the UK Prime Minister and the Queen - on domestic output. BBC World does aston some or all of these people as it is broadcasting to an international not a domestic audience.

I agree with that (although it is not the first time this has happened note Macmillan/Douglas-Home).

As I have said, Blair has only resigned as Labour Party leader so far, not as PM yet. Blair is still in charge of the country, as his push for the new terror laws before he leaves Downing St demonstrates, and he is still doing PMQ.

Until Blair resigns as PM, Gordon Brown is still COTE. To refer to him verbally as "future PM" is OK if it is referring to Brown's future plans, as you suggest. However if some financial crisis unfolds in the next few weeks, Brown is still COTE and has to deal with it (or try to)!!