Letters to the Editor – 05/03 – End of the BBC, Ukraine crisis risks, Best of Twitter
End of the BBC
[Re: How technology has doomed the BBC licence fee, yesterday]
If we make the BBC a pay-per-view service, there will be greater scope for selling programmes outside the UK than is currently the case. There must be thousands of hours of BBC programming (both current and historic) that non UK residents would be willing to pay for, if they had greater access to it. It would be an excellent source of revenue, and a big boost to the UK’s soft power. There is also nothing more depressing than being overseas and being unable to use iPlayer, despite having paid £145 for a TV licence.
Name withheld
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Ukraine crisis risks
[Re: There’s a cost to doing nothing in Ukraine, yesterday]
Well said. Western leaders are miscalculating the risks of their current policies – while sanctions would cause huge damage to our economies, if whole regions suddenly became off-limits to investors because of the rising risk of foreign aggression, then the damage would surely be even greater. None of us have any interest in seeing a revival of the Cold War. But Russia is not the Soviet Union, and hitting the country in its wallet will not close off half the world economy. We must stand firm.
Ollie Millar
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BEST OF TWITTER
Flow of money to his cronies keeps Putin in power. If money flow dips, trouble.
@Kasparov63
There seems little in the way of contrition from Putin over the escalation of tensions in Ukraine.
@truemagic68
Putin was prepared to give Ukraine $15bn. Will the sanctions cost Russia more than that?
@ianbremmer
Under David Cameron, firms have seen business rate hikes of £1,500 on average, and more next month.
@ChukaUmunna