BBC in the last chance saloon over liberal bias

were trying to be funny, I must confess to a sense of humour failure.

It is essential that we contain the spread of the virus not just for the sake of those unfortunate people who do catch it and the effect on their families but also for the myriad of people with non-Covid medical conditions who currently are unable to get the treatment they need.

All too often, these are lifethreatening conditions but those which are ‘merely’ debilitating are also high impact.

We need everyone to do their bit to beat this pandemic and any exemption from wearing a mask cannot also be an exemption from the corporate responsibility.

Jan Wanstall

Bill Martin is correct that the local output of the BBC is vital and should be supported, as indeed is the work of the World Service.

However, in his desire to make a party political point he accuses Conservative governments of underfunding the BBC, something which ignores the fact that the organisation has had access to vast sums from the licence fee, imposed on all.

The problem with the BBC is that it has been dominated for far too long by those unworthy of what they had inherited.

I remember in the post-war years, when the BBC still lived in the afterglow of its moment of glory, the time it truly spoke for England in our darkest hour, that the vast majority of the nation regarded it in the same light as the Crown or the Church, it being the epitome of decency, service and patriotism.

Woefully in these latter years it has been subverted by the bien pensants of the liberal left, so it now represents only the beliefs of the metropolitan elite, while its decisions to chase ratings, which, in view of the guaranteed income from the licence fee, it does not need, to pander to youth, who have other interests, and its payment to so-called talent of obscenely large salaries have all undermined its place in the nation’s heart.

There is now a glimmer of hope for with Tim Davie as director, and the possibility of Charles Moore as chairman, it may be that the BBC can yet be restored to the organisation Lord Reith intended it to be.

However it is certainly in the last chance saloon, and may have already have damaged its reputation beyond repair.

Colin Bullen