It was, delightfully, a bad week for the BBC. Stephen Pollard, as so often, finds the best words to sum up this appalling institution:

“The BBC is an organization that, from top to bottom, sees itself not as a neutral reporter of the news, but as a de facto opposition to whatever government happens to be in power. There is a clear left liberal bias in the BBC’s assumptions. As a body funded by a tax paid by every TV and radio viewer, without any alternative – failure to pay results in imprisonment – that is simply grotesque. Hutton has done the process of democracy a huge service.”

That’s quite right. The current arrangements for funding the Beeb should have been scrapped years ago. One of life’s mysteries is why neither Mrs. Thatcher nor John Major tried to do anything about it while they had the chance. Cowardice perhaps, but also complacency – and a failure to understand the way that culture can shape politics. The Tories aren’t alone. We see the same stupidity at work in President Bush’s decision to push for more money for the NEA, the latest feckless initiative from an increasingly feckless administration.