Final election programme for David Dimbleby

Why would he need to give it up? Global occupies an early afternoon slot, so could manage both on the Thurs (global not broadcast on Fridays), or where further away, his deputy could cover Global. It's not like it's the same presenter all week for any of the main shows anyway.

I think Jon would be fairly wasted on network bulletins, where there's little opportunity for interviewing, analysis... come to think of it the network bulletins require little more onair than the type of basic prompter/script reading that no longer existed for Moira Stewart to do... Granted network presenters play a role in writing scripts, influencing running orders etc. but this isn't particularly complex or challenging, compared to colleagues on Newsnight/ Andrew Marr/ News Channel type programmes.

So now that he doens't present any regular political programming, and is only an occasional face on UK television these days, I'm not sure he is being groomed for anything bigger per se. I'd always imagined Jon would end up something like Newsnight or The Daily Politics, but save for the latter I don't expect he'd be in the running in the unlikely scenario one of the regulars left/were dropped. He would have been an ideal choice for the position that eventually was split between Cathy Newman and Matt Frei at Channel 4 News, or perhaps still to replace Nick Robinson one day, but otherwise I'm not really sure how Jon will/can progress at the BBC (as opposed to moving sideways to new challenges but of the same profile as his current one - such as main presenter on the News Channel to main presenter on World).

I wonder if Jeremy Paxman will be part of the BBC election team now he has departed from Newsnight. He has been part of the election night team since 1997.

If not, who? Andrew Neil would be prefect choice. Andrew Marr? Evan Davis?

Paxman has only ever been part of the election team as part of the Newsnight Team - his slots aren't specifically branded as Newsnight but they have always been in that style.

Neil, Marr and Davis all played roles in the last election coverage. Andrew Neil was on the Party Boat, Marr was with one of the leaders and Evan Davis I think covered one constituency. Everyone plays a roll in election night though - Zeinab Badawi was Live at the Torbay count last time.

Paxman's role has been much more high profile than that Neil, Marr and Davis played last time. He has been very much part of the core election night team for a number of election nights so his exit from it would be noticed.

WHY is he doing this gig? there far more better people in Glasgow able to deal with this.

He will be noticed, but I expect he'll be replaced by Evan Davis or Kirsty Wark.

I don't know if Marr's health issues might limit his involvement on election night. Staying up all night is a lot to ask for a man who's had a major stroke.

He could sleep in the day?

AIUI there will be two parallel programmes going out - one in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (i.e. the bit that Scotland may leave) and a separate one for Scotland. Quite understandable given the two potentially massively different editorial agendas of the shows for the two regions.

I'd expect the "better people in Glasgow" will be doing the programme for Scotland, whilst Huw will be doing the programme for the "Rest of the UK".