BBC Media Action is still receiving direct EU funding

It's not news to us, of course, that BBC Media Action has received money directly from the EU in the past, but, nonetheless, it's still surprising to learn that it's still going on:

Revealed: How BBC charity was paid MILLIONS by EU Commission 

THE BBC continues to face criticism over alleged bias in its election coverage, Express.co.uk can reveal that the broadcaster’s charitable arm BBC Media Action received more than £3million directly from Brussels in the financial year 2017-18. 

By MARTINA BET 

A spokesman for BBC Media action told Express.co.uk: “In the financial year 2017-18, BBC Media Action received approximately £3.1million from the European Commission. This funding has gone to programmes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, North Africa, South Sudan and Ukraine. BBC Media Action is an independent charity which is not funded from the BBC licensing fee."  

Even though the charity claims to be fully independent from the state broadcaster, its board members are not only nominated by the BBC but its chair, Fran Unsworth, is the Director of News & Current Affairs for BBC News. 

Once in Royal David's City

Alexandra Coghlan has an interesting piece at The Spectator on 'the wartime origins of Carols from King's'. 

Her post begins: 

Christmas, for many people, began at exactly 3 p.m today, Christmas Eve. The moment when everything stops, frantic present-wrapping, mince-pie making and tree-decorating ceases and calm briefly takes hold. The reason? A single boy treble whose voice, clear and fragile as glass, pierces through the chaos with those familiar words: ‘Once in Royal David’s city/ Stood a lowly cattle shed…’. 

The service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge, and its annual broadcast on BBC Radio 4 is as essential a part of contemporary Christmas folklore as stockings and Santa Claus, plum pudding and presents. Ageless and timeless, it seems as though there must always have been boys in red robes singing carols in a candlelit chapel — an ancient ritual renewed with each generation.

Now, of course, Alexandra is probably speaking for far fewer people than she thinks. Most people don't tune into Radio 4 to listen to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. But, nonetheless, it gives an interesting insight into the hold the BBC still has on many people - despite all the bias!

I am one of Alexandra's select though. Last year when I finished work early on Christmas Eve - at 3 o'clock - I drove home listening to a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Radio 4 and then, once home, poured myself a glass of wine and put a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on my radio. I then instantly realised I'd forgotten a very important present and, in a panicky fury of disappointment, rushed out to buy it, leaving my wine and my radio behind and joining (in the process) lots of similarly unhappy-looking, panicky men rushing from supermarket to supermarket. (It really does happen after all. I just thought it was a myth of the kind that Woman's Hour might pedal). I digress though...

...er...

Still, a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is proof that the BBC can bring wonder and joy into people's lives - if only by sticking microphones into a Cambridge University chapel every year. 

That said, this year's festival ended with an organ voluntary by one of my favourite composers, Oliver Messiaen ('Dieu parmi nous' from La Nativité du Seigneur), and Radio 4 faded it out almost as soon as it began. I chucked my wine at the radio, cursed Jeremy Bowen and spontaneously combusted (which made posting this piece rather tricky).