Partners of convenience: the Met Office and the BBC | Alexander Hall

The BBC's recent announcement that its weather forecasts will no longer be provided by the Met Office has triggered widespread debate, but has this partnership always been solid, and are we right to fear the end of cooperation between these two cherished public services? Alexander Hall investigates

On Sunday it was announced that after a 93-year relationship, the UK's national weather service, the Met Office, would no longer be providing weather forecasts for the UK's public service broadcaster, the BBC. The Met Office will no longer supply forecast data or weather presenters across all of the BBC's platforms*, as Auntie Beeb looks to secure best value for money for license fee payers by tendering the contract to outside competition. Despite the seeming omnipresent nature of Met Office-presented weather on the BBC, the history of the special association between these two cherished British institutions suggests that there is nothing inevitable or straightforward about their relationship.

On Monday, as people woke up to the news, the internet reacted with the usual cacophony of guffaws, outrage, "I told you so"s and conspiracy theories. Amongst the reasons put forward as to the real cause of the split the full spectrum of political agendas were evident, from blaming the EU for forcing the BBC to openly tender for the contract, to questions of the current government's penchant for privatisation of public services, through to the usual Met Office bashing from climate change sceptics.