the theme tune is good??/ you're a bloody weirdo you are, mate! otherwise you are quite right that it is the worst thing by far on the entirety of UK radio, not just the World Service. really unbelievably and unutterably bad.

As to being the official voice of the ruling-class...well it is for sure the official voice of the foreign office. It really does follow foreign office lines and guidance on all sorts of issues. It's more the Daily telegraph than Daily Mail, which is in part why it is so much better. obviously it has a rather less strident tone than the Telegraph, but it is fundamentally similar (even the DT reports on radical stuff, interviews protestors and caries columns by lefties - not often enough, but neither does the WS, it's just that they are nmore obvious on there). As an international broadcaster, it has to cover world affairs far more reasonably than the UK arm, but in each case it is still following foreign office guidance (the Fo is often considered to be far more 'left-wing' than other government departments, even n the days of thatcher, largely because it has to go out and deal with said foreign governments, rather than just the sad little englanders.