INDEX	April 25, 2024
The future of the World Service
Daily Telegraph 18 April 2024 BBC World Service chief resigns amid 'deep concern' about broadcaster’s future	The BBC has been issuing dire warnings about the future of the World Service. But I think they are pitching their concerns to the wrong people. The BBC believes the Government should fund the World Service rather than the licence payers since it is a wonderful promotion for Britain and all things British. And it is. But what they have failed to recognise is that a government that is prepared to merrily bomb numerous countries and bad mouth many of the remaining ones, doesn't care in the slightest about Britain's international reputation. Ask any bully or gangster what s/he thinks of the hoi polloi and you are unlikely to receive a positive response. The Government is clearly the wrong organisation to pitch to. The people they should be pitching to are the universities since they make squillions out of foreign students both in the UK and in campuses they have set up around the world. What these universities are selling is not primarily the quality of British education (no matter how good it is) but the idea that Britain is a civilised and sophisticated country capable of producing elite graduates. Quite why they believe this after years of appalling government involving attacks on the education system, the closure of libraries and the deification of upper class yob culture, must be down to the BBC World Service. Listen to it and you are taken back to a world where decency and knowledge are valued. It even has quite a few good programme makers and journalists, something of a rarity on the BBC's tv channels. If we lost the World Service the cost to the universities may be vast. The cost to all those who still value decency would be even greater.
INDEX Jonathan Brind			April 25, 2024