London Mayoral & Local Election(s) Coverage 2012

Style over substance is never good, it's all very well recreating virtual worlds but the main thing is to display the information and present it in an engaging way. So I'm not sure about a step back, but I think they need to prevent designers getting carried away.

There was several points where it was difficult to see the north of England/Scotland on the floor map. Because of the green screen I guess the cameras could not move round the side of the country. Would it be possible to have a camera looking down from the ceiling (like in N6 for papers) to show detailed parts of the country?

There was a point when Jeremy Vine was trying to point out something in Cornwall, his hand was somewhere in the sea, and you couldn't see the south coast of Cornwall as it was cut off the map.

The seemingly locked cameras didn't help - yes it was tracked but it wasn't by any means perfect - and Jezza the part of your map in the studio with BRM written on it was more south Staffs/East Staffs - Brum's not that near Derby...

To be fair though - whilst we can nit pick on parts of the coverage - overall the quality of the analysis by both Vine and Maitlis was excellent. Considering Vine was walking over a green sheet with pencil markings I am amazed he did it as acurately as he did. Credit where credit is due!

Jon Sopel was also fantastic yesterday. The weak element in my opinion was Dimbleby who didn't seem quite with it and was making basic mistakes throughout the coverage. Yes, I am sure they were all exhausted, but Dimbleby was not in the same league as Vine/Maitlis/ (Sopel) yesterday.

The winning Liverpool mayor got a higher proportion of the vote that Boris, and got 58,000 votes, second placed got 8,000. The London Mayor got 1,055,000 votes, second placed got 992,000.

Whilst the Liverpool election was of great interest to the voters of Liverpool, there are so many more voters in London, that the London election becomes a much bigger story for our national media.

Until, or unless, we get a more decentralised media, the stories that affect a much larger proportion of the national population will be those given greater coverage.

What do we think of Jon Sopel taking main election duties, succeeding Dimbleby whenever that will be? I think he'd easily be the best candidate to follow on from David judging by last night.

And definitely credit to Emily and Jeremy. Two very very good broadcasters, and both very versatile too.

Although I think Paxman would like the role, and may for a few years get it, in the long term I think it is more likely to be Emily or Jeremy who take over as main anchor. Although Jon would also be a good choice - his news channel experience must be valuable when anchoring that type of programme. It would also be good if he could be used as a sort of 'election specialist' as he also anchors things like the french election tomorrow night. I would really like it if the bbc covered more international elections. The other candidate must be Nick Robinson, depending what he does post-political editor. If he was to get question time or newsnight the role could be his.

I can't see them choosing Emily Maitliss to be Dimbleby's eventual successor. She's a bit lightweight for such a big role. If you asked someone to name a well-known BBC political presenter, I'm sure she wouldn't be top of the list. Paxman or Sopel are more likely, although my money's going on Huw Edwards. He's already filling David's role as the State occasions presenter and he was a political correspondent for BBC News before he took the Six O'Clock News presenting job in May 1999. So, his wealth of experience and general popularity with viewers would surely make him the favourite?

He has fronted election night for BBC Wales for a fair few years now and does a very good job of it, so Huw would be my favourite at the moment. I can't see the BBC wanting to use Paxman in any other capacity than the main interviewer on election night - though it would be interesting to know who Dimbleby's understudy is as presumably the BBC have a plan B should for some reason Dimbleby fail to make it to air.

I don't think the other names mentioned above are established enough amongst the non-TV Forum reading community to get the gig at the moment, and indeed the only other BBC faces I could see getting it are Andrew Marr, who'd probably be awful, or Andrew Neil, who always seems to turn up on ITV come election night. Nick Robinson might be in with a shout too I suppose - did his Newsnight presenting career ever come to anything?

No, it's very similar, the London Mayor has more influence than you think. Remember that various policies that the London Mayors have implemented have been subsequently introduced/tried/proposed for elsewhere in the country - the Congestion Charge being a good example. I suspect that the part nationalisation of London's rail network (London Overground) is being looked at further afield too.

What happens economically in London has a big affect over the UK's economy - for better or worse, as we've experienced over the last 5 years. The Mayor has an influence on the economy of London and can encourage business into the capital. , if he messes up and makes it a less attractive place for companies to base themselves then we all suffer. The Metropolitan Police's influence is a lot bigger than just it's patch too. Decisions made by the Mayor for them will affect every police force

The new situation within the Conservative Party whereby Boris has bucked the electoral trend will affect the whole country. You can be sure the national government - and opposition parties - will be looking at the London election and mayoralty even more than before and changing their techniques and policies accordingly. Of course had it turned out differently than the national political story could have been very different

Annoyingly Sky News did an online item about why the London Mayor is relevant outside London but it's only available to their subscribers who have an iPad


So a French president is relevant but the most powerful directly elected politician in your country isn't?

The fact is that coverage isn't just about how it affects the viewers it's about how important the story is. Two famous people being voted for by a large section of the population who will be responsible for so much will always be a big story.

OK, so what you're saying is that the London mayor has an indirect influence over me. Decisions that he makes eventually filter through to the rest of the UK. I take your point, but I'd still argue that the French president has a more direct impact on all of us in the shape of the EU. France and Germany are the key players in Europe and if France takes a different position after today it could greatly affect EU economic policy, which has a direct impact on me. Hence why I'm more concerned about who wins in France than in London.