> How would you have expected the state broadcaster to behave?

With some cojones. So something you may not have experienced and witnessed if you stayed in one area, is that education was different in different parts of the country, sometimes within the same county. I suspect some of this was a stealth attempt to create future opportunities in deprived parts of the country, but that's the optimist in me which is almost certainly misguided.

>More recently, the BBC seems to prefer to talk down their home country armed forces.

If a country has got to the stage where its got to send the troops in, then you have already lost the argument and are now resorting to violence, that's hardly enlightened is it, and justifies every individual in both country's to get violent over the same conflict or any other disagreement now or in the future. Its not setting an example by the very entity that wants ultimate authority! What an excellent example we should all aspire to be... not!

Prison populations is a measure of the state's failings and who has the largest prison populations? The US and UK.

Why does USUK dominate the global stage in hard power (US) and soft power(UK)? Maybe its that Viking Raider mentality, raping and pillaging everything in its path?