Keith Harrison: BBC's jaw-dropping news, but isn't home where the heart is?

OK.

Think of a 'Jewel in the Crown' for Britain.

India, probably.

The Kohinoor, literally.

Bilston, maybe.

How many of you came up with the BBC World Service?

Probably not too many outside the Mailbox bubble.

But here's a story that may have passed you by in recent weeks; BBC Director Tony Hall has announced the biggest expansion to the World Service since the 1940s.

He calls it 'a jewel in the Crown – for the BBC and Britain'.

Now, I don't know about you, but I always imagined the World Service to be a small team of dulcet-toned bods, in a dark and dusty room, reading out the British news headlines by the light of a 40-watt bulb.

Mr Cholmondley-Warner solemnly announcing: 'This is the BBC World Service from London . . .'

Apparently not.

Because this expansion will lead to broadcasts in 11 new languages – taking the total up to 40 worldwide.

There's Igbo, an official Nigerian language, also spoken in Equatorial Guinea.

Add in Yoruba, spoken in south-western Nigeria (again) and Pidgin, spoken in southern Nigeria.

As well as Tigrinya, the 'main working language' of Eritrea, also spoken in Ethiopia.

Just to be sure Ethiopia is getting the full BBC service, there will also be broadcasts in Amharic, its official language.

Asian listeners don't miss out – with Gujarati and Punjabi now part of the service.

Then of course there's Marathi, from the Indian state of Maharashtra and Telugu, spoken mainly in Andrha Pradesh and Telengana.

Finally, North and South Korea get their own broadcasts, with the southern twang benefitting from 'pop culture slang'. Bangin' bro!

The good news is this huge expansion will lead to 1,300 new jobs.

The bad news (depending on which way you look at it) is that they will be 'mainly non-UK'.

And the cost of these 12 new or expanded daily bulletins?

A mere £289 million over the next five years.

Let's pause here for a moment.

How's your jaw?

Two hundred and eighty-nine MILLION pounds.

Think of every penny of income tax you will ever pay. Add in everything your family will pay, your neighbours and their neighbours.

Chances are you won't scratch the surface of £289 million.

And that's just the cost of this latest expansion.

It doesn't take into account the 'full digital service in Thai' quietly launched a few weeks ago and a raft of other services you pay for, but are unaware of.

As for those listening (for free) in these far-off lands, the BBC insists it will provide 'independent, impartial journalism'.

Translation (for free): They'll still blame everything on Brexit.

The World Service itself already runs up £245m of taxpayers' money a year.

You may recall the collective fit of vapours from senior executives when they had to take on the cost from the Foreign and Commonwealth office in 2015.

You'd think if it was such a burden, they would be looking to make savings, not announce the 'biggest expansion since the 1940s'.

Target

But here we are, with DG Tony Hall trumpeting the corporation's target to reach 500 million people globally by 2022.

I don't recall ever being asked if this is what I want my licence fee spent on, but that applies to many things, including the grotesque salaries paid to Mssrs Lineker and Norton.

And, in truth, I wouldn't expect to be asked.

You can't run a huge corporation by public consensus, but you do run it by public consent.

And I wonder if people really think this is the best way of spending their hard-earned tax.

Irrespective of that, there's no news yet on how this will affect the local news providers already in place in these countries and regions.

After all, 1,300 'mainly non-UK' jobs are going to have an effect on the established media, with experienced local staff required to get such a large project off the ground.

As an editor who has lost plenty of good staff (and some not-so-good) to the BBC, I can assure my counterparts in African and Asian hot-seats that our state broadcaster pays handsomely – often well above the level possible in the private sector.

The Korea service editor's role pays up to a hefty £69,000, for example, but at least it's based in London.

Meanwhile, my old pals at the NUJ carry a roll call of job losses, strikes and strife on their website as well as a news item bemoaning 1,000 job losses at the BBC after a £150m shortfall in licence fee funding.

Maybe some of those affected can apply for £69,000 World Service jobs – as long as they're fluent in Korean.

To be clear, this is not some anti-BBC rant; like most people I value and cherish the corporation and have huge respect for many of the editorial staff and senior management based in the West Midlands.

But at a time when the regional press is under serious threat, both from commercial pressures and punitive privacy legislation, it jars that we are able to spend £289m expanding a service, however laudable, overseas, while watching historic newspaper titles struggle at home.

Rarely does a week pass by without some local newspaper 'restructure' being announced, causing more journalist redundancies.

Furthermore, attempts to transform publishers into digital businesses are hampered by the Beeb's huge – and, again, incredibly expensive – online presence.

So as we set sail into a bold new year, how about a bit of tax-payer funded help for 'independent and impartial' journalism here in the UK?

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the people of the Black Country would rather have their news in Yam-Yam than Igbo.