Current Russian Economy News
The BBC World Service Cuts Are The Final Nail In The Coffin Of British Relevance
Crisis is gripping the BBC just as it has been equally seeping into all areas of British public life. After recieving a 16 per cent savings directive from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the BBC World Service is having to drastically scale down operations. After the British Government's spending reviews, this is common sight. But it's making the UK an even less prominent presence on the world stage, and one that cannot have much credibility left.
The BBC will be cutting several of its foreign language offerings, in Albanian, Macedonian, Portuguese, Serbian, Mandarin, Russian, Ukrainian and many more. The cuts haven't been carried out because there's no user base: one and a half million people listen to the BBC's African Portuguese language service. Most tellingly of all though, the BBC are axing their Caribbean Service. Whilst this is only the second largest of the axed services, a withdrawal from the Caribbean seems particularly damaging. It's not just about British travellers no longer having a link to their homeland whilst under the Tropical Sky of Barbados Holidays. There's a significant diplomatic dimension: what are commonwealth nations actually getting for their membership?. Is there not grounds to claim that the BBC - and by extension the UK Government - are clearly apathetic how they're viewed and what's going on in nations they were associated with?
Caribbean / UK relations are incredibly important, and no one side should feel it has the position to take more than it gives. Culturally joined at the hips, the British people regularly take holidays to St Lucia and other islands. They may have family there, they may have a simple interest in the history of the place (or they may just like the sun). But recent air-tax levies have been adversely affecting British tourism to the Caribbean anyway. The British links in the Caribbean will, in time, become irrelevant (even if not entirely unwelcome). For the duration of its work, the World Service has been a stunningly effective diplomatic face for the UK. Leave it to people on Jamaica Holidays and you can bet the British will get themselves a bad diplomatic identity. With a new world of super powers just around the corner, the UK is going to find itself feeling very inadequate indeed if it can no longer call upon the Commonwealth for economic and diplomatic support.
Gerald Celente on the Annual economic report Russia today 12 Feb 2010
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