[qwerty123]

Outside of Sally Bundock, who seems to be a quasi-Chief Presenter (when really she deserves to be one officially) the 5am to 8am hour is also unallocated. So 5am to 1pm UK time has anybody random presenting. Not great.

Sally is 5-7 Monday to Thursday (and the 07:30 business update) and Lucy starts at 12:00 so it’s 07:00-13:00 Monday to Thursday and 05:00-12:00 Friday that is less consistent and to be fair even under the old channels 07:00-10:00 had been the inconsistent slot on world where just about anyone would appear for several years.
The main reason the channel now feels so much more inconsistent is probably that the chief presenters take random days off midweek with no obvious pattern rather than them all largely working Monday to Thursday as was previously the case.

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Well, from the little I've seen of Lauren Taylor last few days she did seem like your typical, old school BBC news presenter, but reading that detailed report about this mornings breaking news makes me want to reconsider. I did tune into BBC News for 10 minutes or so, it was just standard filler talk over the live footage of the airport. Seemed to be the same on Sky and CNN.

Anyway, what's clear is that BBC News lacks reliable, experienced presenters. It had them in droves, now there's just a few left, with a bunch of inexperienced interns appearing all over the channel. There's always a huge risk a major story will break and one of these people will have to deal with it. The 08.00-13.00 shifts are especially bad, with no designated chief presenters, it's anyone's guess who might appear.

The faith of Martine & Co still seems uncertain but at this point, even if they return, with such a long absence they'll be like newbie interns as well.....

If the channel used its resources appropriately it still has more than enough reliable presenters who are more than adequate to deal with breaking news and quite frankly some of those currently off air are not exactly the strongest rolling news presenters. The problem is that many of these people are being used a handful of times a month whilst others who lack the same skills get many more outings.
It’s also important to note that with substantially less resource now available behind the scenes it is likely that even those who have previously been praised for their rolling coverage would no longer be able to output at the level that has become expected of them.
It’s also seems to be forgotten that many of the bigger departures from the channel may well have happened by now regardless of cutbacks due to a combination of age and increased need for cover on BBC One.