Where's the world going....?

There are off-stage noises that we might hear more clearly next week about Foreign Office funding of the BBC World Service. The Conservatives' wonderfully ambivalent attitude to this undoubted UK plc asset led to an end in direct funding (at £254m a year) in 2014, winning a promise from a supine BBC that a minimum of £254m p.a. would be provided henceforward from licence-fee payers.

Then, in 2015, the FCO decided to invest in the World Service again, promising £291m spread over four years, for specified new services. That funding stream was last year extended to September 2020 (probably costing a further £42m), but, if contracts are to be maintained, a decision beyond that is now urgent. 

Meanwhile, licence-fee payers contributed £278m last year to World Service. That's just over £1 a week from each licence-fee household.