Cuts to news have only added to the threats to the corporation. It needs to summon every friend it has, and fight back
What timing. The government forces the
BBC to take an £80m chainsaw to its news programmes just as the country needs every national treasure it can muster. As
Britain leaves the EU, every shred of soft power, cultural power and brain power is needed more than ever to transmit its influence. Everywhere in the world, the BBC helps get Britain it a hearing. Boris Johnson’s benches can’t bray about their patriotism unless they stand up for this best of
British symbols.
Sarah Sands, the editor of Radio 4’s flagship Today programme, has also announced her resignation. She is distraught at a loss of “hardworking and committed producers” working at a merciless pace for slender pay; up all night, with heavy responsibility for any slip seized on by sharks eager for BBC blood. The cuts will make BBC news more homogenised, with hubs turning out the same stories for all outlets. That’s rational, she says, in the face of government cuts, but it drains quirky individuality from programmes, sapping producers’ imaginative input.