Wales generally have separate coverage with Huw Edwards don't they?
Yes, and it is good how the BBC's main news presenter can't do the election coverage because he's doing the BBC Wales coverage. He is doing it this year, as he did in 2005, although I know in 2001 he was a reporter on the network show, he was with William Hague all night, and in 1992 and 1997 he was co-presenting the radio coverage. In 1992, he turned up without the million page book of all the constituencies and candidates and they asked if he wanted a copy, and he refused, because he'd actually memorised the entire contents.
In addition, he did the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum, which was a BBC Wales production of course but networked, and in 1999 he co-presented a very odd local election show as it featured that plus the first ever Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections. Overnight Kirsty Wark anchored it from Edinburgh with Huw, the week before he took over the Six, doing the local election results from London, and then in the morning he travelled to Cardiff, as all the Welsh results were counted on the Friday, and presented a networked show from 11-1, which then continued for a bit longer on BBC Wales.
Anyway, Scotland and Wales are doing their own programmes on BBC1, with the network show on BBC2. Scotland's is also being shown on BBC Parliament. Northern Ireland seem to be opting in and out of the netowrk.
The Northern Ireland coverage in the last election, which of course didn't start until Friday afternoon, was also shown on BBC Parliament and they used the same graphics as the network coverage but, in a strap where the network had results, BBC Northern Ireland had text messages, so if you'd been out for a bit and switched back on, you may have wondered why the ticker had gone from "Labour hold Cleethorpes" to "David Trimble is teh lames LOL". The other interesting thing about Northern Ireland's coverage is that Noel Thompson was the main presenter but carried out the interviews with the politicians, while Mark Carruthers was the co-host and sat at desk at the side with the psephologists, which is the opposite of how the network coverage works with Dimbelby and Paxman.
