Black Sky thinking...

The destruction of the BBC World Service - for that is what the 25 per cent cuts there are the start of - is a startling acceptance by the Government that this country is now Little Britain.
It has as much a failing of vision for the UK's place in the world as Richard Lambert says it does of our economic future.
The Tories - and not just the right wing but most of the current crop, including Cameron, Osborne and Hague - hate the EU because they believe we can stand on our own. At least, that is the implication.
But on our own as what? Certainly not as a great power - that went long ago - or even as a significant force in the world, other than to hang on pathetically to the US coat-tails.
We do have some things going for us. Our language, obviously; our culture, including music, films and television (sort of). And we can cling on to what is left of our international reputation despite the worst endeavours of Tony Blair.
That all came together in the World Service, which has a justified reputation for honesty and integrity. That's not good enough for the current Government, though.
The cuts just announced are just the start of it.  In a couple of years the entire burden of funding will be passed from the Foreign Office to the BBC, which will take it on at the same time that it struggles to cope with huge cuts to its own budget.
The World Service will suffer again, instead of the phalanx of human resources managers, press officers and non-creatives which the BBC employs on the Birtian Model. The day can't be far off when the World Service will no longer exist and the BBC will fade into insignificance, to be replaced by Sky.
The Government is working towards that. It will happen in Rupert Murdoch's lifetime, letting him die a happy man.,