BBC World Affairs Editor john Simpson, one of the corporation's most distinguished hacks who was famously pictured marching into Kabul at the start of the Afghan conflict, has said the BBC is in its "last stages" owing to a lack of funding. Remarking that his bosses might finally get round to sacking him, he said, "I'll hate the so and sos - I hate them pretty much anyway, but I'll hate them even more." We keep hearing that the Beeb is strapped for cash but it remains the happy recipient of £3bn plus a year of taxpayers money. That's enough to send an army to Afghanistan, let alone a reporter and a camera crew. But, of course, it does other things too like paying Jonathan Ross £6m a year, running a magazine publishing business and buying the Lonely Planet travel guides. It also dominates the UK sector of the news website business although, to be fair, it does a good job, not least in its recent coverage of the credit crunch. But it looks increasingly likely that some of its income will be 'top sliced' by broadcast regulator Ofcom to help fund news and current affairs on commercial rivals ITV and Channel 4. So Simpson is probably right to be worried (not about being fired surely). But surely a plurality of news organisations is to be valued as much as the rightly esteemed Simpson?