Oops! FCO website announces "Massive U-Turn" on World Service funding

By Tim Montgomerie
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The Foreign Secretary has found another £2.2m to keep the BBC's Arabic Service going. It won't be enough to satisfy the World Service's leading defenders on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee but the extra money (amounting to c1% of the BBC World Service's budget) is an appropriate acknowledgement of the Arab Spring.

A prankster at the FCO decided to have some fun with the announcement on the FCO website. The page has now been changed but the announcement was originally headlined "Massive U-turn on BBC World Service funding". It now reads "Foreign Office will provide additional funding for the BBC World Service". I screen captured the original page... 

 

2pm: John Baron MP: A £2.2million reprieve for the BBC World Service does not reverse short-sighted cuts to our soft power capability