BBC News: Presenters, correspondent & rotas

I didn't realise Norman Smith was leaving - is this part of the recent wave of redundancies at the BBC? A real shame.

Wow. I am truly shocked. Norman is one of - if not the best - political correspondent/editor that the BBC has. His live links on the One are always entertaining. Such a shame. No replacement (if there even is one) will be able to live up to the wit and professionalism of Norman.

Edit: They better give him a decent send off on air, even if it is on the One. I couldn't watch the One regularly before lockdown - but now I do and it has become clear his slot in the programme is a regular and informative one.

We will miss him so much. He has been a key part of BBC political reporting for as long as I remember. He'll be doing his last live for the One on #BBCNews later. Do watch https://t.co/XROlNCIpBT

— Reeta Chakrabarti (@reetacbbc) July 30, 2020

I am so shocked and sad to hear about this. Annita is giving him a brilliant send off during her last hour on the News Channel. Such a gigantic loss. Hopefully he'll turn up somewhere else very soon.

Times Radio ?

Would've been there by now. He's said he's focusing on himself for the foreseeable future, and good for him. Politics has been a heck of a ride for the last 5 years.

Or possibly early retirement combined with voluntary redundancy. Financially once you hit your 50s at the BBC that can be a compelling combination if you have maxed out your pension and worked at the BBC for 24 years or more. (The sweet spot used to be around 55 with that combination. In the 90s when there were a lot of redundancies offered in BBC Resources it was often said that if you worked past 55 you were paying the BBC for the privilege!)

Then it's just a case of finding something interesting to do with the rest of your life - which may not mean a full-time job.

Reeta gave him a lovely tribute on the One.

That's it from Norman. He will he missed.

Norman has just done his last live on the One O'Clock News.

Looking at the response on Twitter, he clearly commands huge respect amongst his peers for his clarity and unflappable manner. I'm sure he'll have no shortage of offers if he wants to do ad hoc freelance work.

Any news on his replacement or will be the whole post of Assistant Political Editor be made redundant at least for the short/mid term?

Times Radio are still adding to their rota though, with Ross Kempsell returning back to Wireless recently and after the station started.

No news, he's only just announced he's leaving, same as Deputy Political Editor then.

They won't replace Deputy or Assistant... Vicki is covering for Laura it seems throughout the summer, John's old Friday slot is covered by a Pol Corr and the morning slot will probably just be rotaed between correspondents. Which is sad. Because I could name many suitable replacements.