BBC News: Presenters & Rotas

We should stick to the subject of TV presentation, rather than sliding into politics. However, now that you've opened that Pandora's Box, can I suggest you avoid the 'oh don't be silly, what's going to happen? It's not like we're all going to die' line. It's worth remembering that we had an economic crash in the UK in the 1970s, and we were bailed out by the equivalent of the EU and the IMF. We don't know how things will shape up, but let's avoid sensationalism from either side. It WILL be a bumpy ride. It may just end up being some rough turbulence, but please don't be the pilot who kills his passengers by not simply warning them to fasten their seatbelts and ride it out!

It seems like you're having your own imagined discussion; I'm not sure I need to take part when you're guessing what I'm going to say!

Bringing it back somewhere near the topic, I think the BBC's coverage of Brexit is as close to even handed as it's possible to be in the very polarised climate we're in. It's because of that climate that both sides seem to have collective amnesia over the way their side of the argument behaved prior to the referendum - and why I pointed out that so many of the forecasts of doom didn't come to pass in the way they were stated.

To say there are no positives to Brexit is as silly as saying there were no positives to being in the EU. The difference between the two is that the benefits of the EU are already there to see, whereas the advantages of Brexit are still in the future (and not set in stone).

You inadvertently make an interesting point about the effects of media bias though - the WWW3 claim is a fabrication. It was Boris Johnson's response to a speech in which David Cameron discussed the history of the EU, but it made for better headlines in certain sections of the press.

There are two mantas I live by:-

1: Something never turns out to be as fabulous and brilliant as you imagine it will be
2: Something you've been dreading, never turns out to be quite as disastrous

<personal OT view>

I voted to remain, but hey it looks like we're leaving, so let's stop looking back, and get on, and make this work best we can.

</personal OT view>

Cameron did raise the prospect of war being more likely if we left the EU. It was indeed Boris who first mentioned the precise phrase World War Three, but it was Cameron who evoked all the WWI and WWII imagery during the speech.

It was a characterisation of the speech, but not a far-fetched one.

EDIT: I think it would also be hard to argue that war in Europe would be treated as an internal issue, and wouldn't develop into a new World War.

We've strayed hugely off topic, so I think it's probably best to leave this topic. In another place I would disagree a lot more vigorously with you on this, but I'm conscious that this isn't the place.

Quite agree.

We seem to have a few cover presenters today on BBC News. Ben Brown is doing the One, whilst Julian Worricker did the summaries on Victoria Derbyshire, plus Newsroom Live. But according to twitter, Simon McCoy will be hosting Afternoon Live.

Probably because it's still the Easter holiday. There are hardly any people in my place of work today, it's like a ghost town.

Or because its a typical Tuesday...
Newsroom Live hasn't had a fixed Tuesday presenter for a number of months and Ben has also presented the one (which is also lacking a fixed presenter with Sophie covering the six most evenings) quite a bit in the past couple of months.

I think this is the most civil political argument I've ever seen on the Internet. (Also, good idea to hide it in the rotas thread, nobody will ever look!)

Lucy Grey did Impact for the first time. Tim Willcox on Global. Samantha Simmonds with The Briefing.

I believe Sophie's covering News at Six because George is off sick due to recurring cancer issue (which he tweeted about a month or two). She is normally main relief presenter for both News at One and News at Six nowadays anyway.