Letter: The BBC's excesses

Sir: The letter from the beneficiaries of the BBC's largess leaves me slightly more than angry. Each of the signatories enjoys an amount of income from the BBC that allows them to consider the proposed increase by the BBC insignificant. Understandably, they want that to continue.

Please can we consider then the large portion of the population for whom television has become the primary form of entertainment but who do not enjoy large incomes. The writers of the letter depend upon those people.

Were we allowed to elect to pay for BBC as you can with some other services then it would matter not one iota; but this is a tax; we can go to prison for not paying this levy. (Why, there is a whole industry of tv-police hammering on the doors around university towns when term commences!)

Of the many channels available with a digital receiver you can still watch just one; the quality of the BBC output in recent years is such that I for one would not subscribe to it. Let us then scrap the television licence fee altogether and allow the BBC to enjoys the true value of its labours with commercial support.

ROGER SMITH

Welland,

Worcestershire