It hardly takes Mark Thompson’s intervention to make the point that the BBC is bearing part of the cost of the government’s social policy (BBC is paying for Tory policy says ex-chief, 24 December). In agreeing to the government’s pressure to take on the cost of free licences for over-75s the BBC is, in effect, helping the Tories to boost their vote with the wealthy pensioner and, at the same time, appearing to be helpful to the working poor by continuing to give tax credits (at least until universal credit becomes widely introduced). For the government this is a case of having your cake and eating it.
Having just reached the age of 75 I intend to send a cheque to the BBC for my licence fee. I hope that other readers in my position will do the same and that the Guardian will campaign for a change in policy by the government.
David Rowe
Newcastle upon Tyne
• Following on from Mark Thompson’s just critique, I would add that if our government thinks it is correct to force the BBC to bear the cost of free licence fees for the over-75s, using the same logic, why does it not force the energy companies to bear the cost of the winter fuel payment?
Frank Dux
Cirencester, Gloucestershire
• The suggestion that the government’s decision to make the BBC pay for older people’s broadcasting licences amounts to making the BBC pay for Tory welfare policy is both accurate and useful. Mark Thompson’s suggestion is profoundly political but it is not party political. It is shrewd analysis. Perhaps the little-known Hansard Society should award Thompson a prize and in the process gain some much-needed PR.
Peter Draper
London
• I reserve some of my waking hours for worrying about a resurgent Sky/Murdoch. Replying to surveys and inquiries about the BBC doesn’t quite settle my mind. It occurs to me that if the BBC is to pay licence fees for those of us over 75 years old, there is no reason why Sky should not be required to provide a free service to the same people. Care would be needed to ensure that the free service was worth having, so that it would have to include a fair amount of sport and film, not just tired repeats of CSI, football from the 1990s and straight-to-video films. But if a national enterprise can afford it, a profit-making business can do so all the more easily. (I should perhaps add that I don’t write in my own interest; I’m not 75, and wouldn’t want Sky even for free.)
Nicholas Hampson
Richmond, Surrey
• While the Yesterday TV channel’s remit may be in part nostalgia, what does it say about Britain at Christmas in 2015 that its schedule for Christmas Eve ran from 6.30am with the World at War and continued uninterrupted until 10pm. There followed two hours of Hitler: The Rise of Evil to round off the day. A Happy Christmas to all.
Christopher Wright
Worcester
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