In a profile of BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson for GQ Magazine, Ian Burrell suggests that Robert Peston is the favourite to succeed him in his job, should he decide to move on to pastures new after the election. Hmmm. I suspect Robinson will wish to stay for at least the first year or two of a new government (should there be one...), but if not, there will be quite a rush of applications to succeed him. In addition to Peston, James Landale and John Pienaar would both have good claims to the job from inside the BBC, while there will be the usual speculation about Adam Boulton. There are no obvious candidates from the world of print journalism.
Who would you suggest for the job. If, that is, there were a vacancy. Which there's not.
Once we've got aa shortlist together, I'll start a poll. Only trying to save the BBC some expensive hedhunting fees...
61 comments:
Get Guido in...at least there wouldn't be any more spin reported as fact.
** COUGH **
Someone a) considerably less partisan b) as enthusiastic and generous.
I promise you this though, if Peston gets the gig my telly is going into the canal.
If it were Peston and given the time it takes him to get a sentence out the reporting slot would have to be trebled.
The person I should most like to see succeed Nick Robinson is Laura Kuennsburg but suspect I'm not alone in hoping for anybody but Peston who strikes me as me as mannered, opinionated and much too close to Labour.
That being said, I suspect that Robinson has at least one quality in common with his hero, Gordon Brown: that is, an absolutely rockhard determination to stay in his present post for as long as possible.
This is THE job for that most astute of political commentators. KEVIN MAGUIRE!
Seriously I believe Tom Bradby of ITN should be appointed. He is the nearest I can think of as 'neutral' and that is what I want.
Jon Craig.
John Pienaar. No contest.
Please not Robert Peston. It is quite impossible to listen to this man and to want to continue living.
His delivery is so off-putting that he needs to move to print-journalism.
While I'm at it, not Michael Crick either, thanks. Amusing and impish but he doesn't cut it for me on Newsnight doing the job that Mark Mardell or Martha Kearney did.
So I'd nominate one of them, please.
Good idea. We haven't had a list for at least ten minutes :-)
Boulton moved up in my estimation by refusing to be infected by the "poll lead narrows" theme.
How about Gary Gibbon: possibly the most impartial journalist since, er, Ben Bradshaw....
I nominate my nephew, Rob Hutton, lobby man for Bloomberg, formerly of the FT and the Mirror: if he's good enough for the money men, he's good enough for the masses.
Laura Kuenssberg
Laura Kuennesberg [sic?]?
A right wing blogger
Just don't replace him.
Gordon Brown will be looking for work.
The obvious man for the job is CoCo the Clown
I've always rated Gary Gibbon. Otherwise if he made the leap from business, then Faisal Islam. One of the best reporters on TV at the moment.
And no, I don't work for ITN.
Surely no one in their right mind would consider Peston, with his randomly stressed words (http://bit.ly/4TZIWC) and obsession with PowerPoint style presentations (http://bit.ly/gkQcU)!
Laura, or perhaps Sophie Raworth.
What about Andrew Porter ??
James Landale is good.
BBCLauraK Rocks !!!
Jon Craig for preference.
Certainly no more Left Wing cohorts.
After being negative about Peston, my positive nomination would be Michael Crick - unless he's considered too quirky and/or too old for the top job.
James Landale is very good. But I think a woman should get the job. And to counter the 'ageism' and 'fanciability' factor accusations, what about Harriet Harman ?
Peston has the most awful voice in Christendom.But he is marginally better looking and has a full head of hair.
Anyone but Peston! He is ok when he is reading from a prepared script but I cannot stand his drawl and artificially extended words when he is being interview and speaking off the cuff. I suppose what I mean is he should be a print journalist or get a voice transplant.suili
Laura Kuenssberg deffo!
Or how about Old Holborn. That'd be a blast!
Of course, the BBC expends so much time and money on Iain Dale's views these days, then why not just cut to the chase and appoint him anyway ??
Eddie Mair. I wouldn't give you tuppence for anyone else in the employ of the state broadcaster.
So, are you saying that al jebeeba will survive?
Free Edward Stourton !!
Scientists have been saying that there is no G-Spot, but you sure seem to have found the metaphorical one in your readers, Mr Dale...
Must be a card carrying member of the Labour Party.
Why not abandon the charade of impartiality and independence and give Lord Mandy the role ? It would do away with a lot of pretence and artifice.
If Labour somehow finagled a win, Snow or Boulton would be short-odds.
If the Cons win, these two gents should retire immediately, as "wholly compromised with the corrupt old regime", along with a few tens of thousands of other apparatchiks.
Surely this would be the last straw. Peston is already massively compromised in his current post owing to a closeness to Brown et al which made him the conduit for the toxic Lloyds Halifax rumours during the financial crisis. Personally, I'd still like to see the leaker (if it wasn't the Cabinet Office itself) prosecuted.
Presumably Toenails is going to take a job with the Labour party? Oh hang on he already works for them.
Peston's too close to Labour; Sky wouldn't let go of Boulton; my money's on Landale, if Robinson was to spend more time with his barber...
Laura K
Laura Kuenssberg. Glad to see so many others agreeing that she is a top talent.
Anyone but Peston really.
What about the chappie with the wonky eyes ?. He seems to see much clearer than Robinson.
Typical of the BBC that they don't feature their Political correspondents on the Politics website.
P D James
Lord Mandelson clearly
Cuts out the middleman as toenails clearly only regurgitates NL spin
Another vote here for Guido. :-)
Actually my vote would be "anyone but Peston".
I'd ask the question though - what exactly does the BBC Political Editor do all day? Marr's nabbed the heavyweight interview spot, and Brillo does most of the day-to-day politics coverage.
So the PE is left with the spots on the news standing outside Number 10 saying "Sophie, some people have gone in, some have come out, but we don't know what's going on. And now back to the studio" (a job which gets handed on to Laura Kuenssberg when it's raining), a spot of blogging, and presumably lots of behind the scenes stuff. I'm not sure why the PE has to do so much of the standing in the rain stuff myself, I'd rather see the new one merge NR's other activities with the Marr gig.
So it's not really the job for a great interviewer like Boulton or Jeff Randall - I'd love to see Randall replace Marr or Brillo though. PE is more of a job for an "explainer to the masses". Given the tempo of the times, someone with an economics/business background would probably be more use than a political type whose black book has been wiped out by post-expenses departures, it's time for a fresh start.
So I'd suggest the obvious candidate is Paul Mason rather than Peston, if you're looking for a BBC insider with that kind of background. I'm a big fan.
If it has to be more of a Lobby insider, then I suppose Pienaar would do, I like him but I'm not sure it's quite the right job for him.
I must admit, I don't like Laura Kuenssberg - there's just something about her that's not quite right. Let's replace her with Jenny Scott (smart, cute, economics and politics background) - and whilst we're about it fill Mason's job with Dharshini David (smart, cute, economics background...) I see the delectable Dharshini has recently rejected Tesco's shilling to come back to the meeja, great news.
(apologies if this is a repost?)
Jeremy Clarkson?
Use it as an opportunity to close down the BBC in its entirety, so saving the taxpayer squillions and providing the satisfaction of seeing thousands of socialist parasites thrown out of work.
Thinking about it further - surely there is only one possible candidate? Someone who is already a star blogger, who knows all the important people in TV, commanding as much respect from the Right as the Left and uniquely placed to give psychological insights into the political process?
It's got to be Derek Draper.
Arlene Philips
Someone who had heard about the Hoon & Hewitt letter before him.
Iain, after the next general election there will dinfinitely be a new government. What we don't know is whether it will be Labour or Conservative.
Laura Kuennsberg ?
Wiki:
Grew up in Glasgow and studied History at Edinburgh U ....
That's quite enough of that thank you !!
God save us from Scottish historians.
Ian Dale could hack it...
I hope it's John Pienaar. I've always found him to be scrupulously fair, unlike many, and he has a natural way of explaining the essence of the matter at hand to ordinary mortals.
It's got to be Dolly Draper - car crash viewing at its best!
Ref my earlier http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_O'Donoghue is the chapI'm thinking of
No Peston please.
Although he has toned down this aspect of his rhetoric recently, I champion John Pienaar for his wonderful use of hyperbole - I recall (perhaps not entirely accurately) John in a discussion program, when someone else used the expression "sinking ship" about the Labour Party, and John responded along the lines that it was not just a sinking ship, it was an entire Armada, the greatest navy ever assembled by mankind, being dashed against the rocks, aflame, sails torn asunder mariners battered, bruised, . . . . . . . . .
We need that kind of journalism.
Can't stand Peston. Lansdale would be much better.
Gary Gibbon.
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