The kids' verdict on Gordon
We're running a Press Pack interview with Gordon Brown on Newsround today, in which two young reporters get a special sit-down interview with the chancellor.
And off the back of it, we've decided to run a text vote: "Would you like Gordon Brown to be the next Prime Minister Y/N?"
Children can text in during Newsround on Ö÷²¥´óÐã One, and we'll announce the result at the end of the show. Over and done in less than eight minutes.
It's quite a simple and straightforward question, and one that's on everyone's lips, but, this being the Ö÷²¥´óÐã, we have to check and double-check it with our editorial policy chaps.
They're happy with it, but we need to make sure that we present it correctly. Crucially, we cannot say when we announce the result, "This is what you think of Gordon Brown", or "This is what children think". The vote is, of course, a completely self-selecting, unscientific, unrepresentative piece of fun.
So we make sure that we say "This many people voted", and "Of those, this many said they liked him, and this many said they didn't". And with lots of adults watching Newsround too, we know that they could be voting as much as children are. So that's something we need to stress too.
But perhaps the most interesting thing will be to see how popular this text vote is, compared with other recent votes along the lines of England winning the World Cup and kids' views on seatbelts.
I'll let you know the outcome later.
UPDATE, Thurs 0900: …and the headline result is that, in the five minutes we were on air, 1,400 voted in our text vote, and over 1,000 of them said that they didn't want Gordon as Prime Minister. So it was a big fat "NO" on our massive video screens in our studio.
Next week we're interviewing David Cameron, so we'll put him to the test too.
Comments
Politics has to communicate in the medium of the moment for young people to become involved. I think this is a good step in that direction.
All Gordon has to do is offer them mobile phones and they'll do anything he says. For adults he can give them a lifetime of free Big Brother or Premiership football
I agree with Graham, making young people aware that their opinion matters is vital.
As much as I think its fair to give the younger population a voice when it comes to political issues, I imagine that most don't know or even care who he is, even after someone from their age-group conducted an interview with him.
Although I would think that adults feel the same, as no matter who 'runs' - or should it be 'spins' - our country, nobody seems to do a good job! ;)