So, welcome then, Al Jazeera English, the English language service of the (in)famous arabic 24hr rolling news channel Al Jazeera. There will be teething problems. There will be political disagreement about it. It will take time to build the capacity and audience and credibility of CNN and the BBC‘s News 24/World channels. And, quite frankly, there will be some bad or boring television.

Nevetheless, all this aside, today’s launch must be given an unqualified welcome. Diversity in news can only be a good thing. I will therefore be watching online until ntl get around to offering it to their long-suffering Dublin subscribers!