How can the BBC ignore the plight of needy viewers?

i WiLL soon turn 77 and i am recovering from bowel cancer surgery. My wife has had multiple sclerosis since 1976, is severely disabled and needs walking aids to get about the house and a wheelchair when we go out.

Last week i received a letter saying we will no longer get a free TV licence from the end of June 2020. Only the poorest pensioners on pension credit and who are 75 years and older will still get one.

i find the hypocrisy of the BBC’s director-general astounding when you look at the salaries being paid to the directors and so-called stars (many of whom get their wages through ‘ personal service companies’ and so pay far less tax).

The new regulations ignore disabled people and their carers, whose only form of entertainment is the TV in their homes.

Where is the compassion in the BBC, which has decided that disability, infirmity and poverty under the age of 75 are not qualifying factors for a free TV licence?

Perhaps it would do the directorgeneral good to see how the other half lives.

i call on the BBC to think again on this issue. Defending cases of non-payment in court will surely incur costs greater than the savings the BBC says will result from the new rules. nor do i believe programme quality will increase, as the director-general predicts.

JOHN R. BlUNDEll, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Brady and Longford

in rEPOrTinG how ian Brady was allowed by prison authorities to mix with vulnerable young prisoners on a hospital wing at Wormwood Scrubs prison in the 1970s, even after it was alleged he had sexually assaulted one of them, you headlined the piece ‘ Labour peer helped Moors murderer Brady mix with teens’.

This is a travesty of Frank Longford’s actual role, which was the exact opposite.

i am director of the Longford Trust, set up to continue Frank Longford’s work in prison reform, as well as his biographer. He campaigned for 14 years to have Brady transferred from the general prison estate to Ashworth Special Hospital, a secure mental institution suitable for dealing effectively with the challenges Brady posed.

That struggle was successful in 1985. it was the Home Office’s failure to listen to Longford’s lobbying sooner that led to the abuse your report refers to.

Longford himself records that Brady, soon after arriving at Ashworth, ‘not only cut off communication [with me] but, according to one newspaper, referred to me as a “Home Office lackey” ’.

PETER STANFORD, director of the longford Trust,

london NW6.

High Street blues

WHY blame falling sales in the High Street on just the weather? Are retailers not aware that women born in the 1950s have been robbed of their state pensions and therefore have no disposable income, nor a bus pass to get to the shops?

Give us what we are owed and you will see sales increase.

J.A. BROWN, Ulverston, Cumbria. nO WOnDEr our High Streets are in decline. My daughter liked a dress that she tried on in a wellknown shop. She then looked for the same dress online and found it was £5 cheaper and could be delivered to a pick-up point of her choice at no extra cost.

RICHARD PRESS, Borehamwood, Herts.

Bias Down Under

rEADinG about the BBC being so Left-wing and biased made me smile. We have exactly the same problem with the ABC in Australia. its new chairman, just before our election last month, said we should vote Labor. it was appalling.

We are all so fed up with Leftwing bias in our national broadcaster and also in the universities, which hate anyone without a socialist agenda.

As for climate change, if you don’t agree with the official (mostly Left-wing) arguments, forget it. You won’t get your opinion out there.

i can see the dirt- raking regarding Boris Johnson that is being stirred up by Left-wingers in the UK.

Take heart. in our election, quiet Australians astounded the media, which was absolutely sure Labor would win. But the sensible, middle-of-the-road voters won.

MARIANNE STEVENS, Halls Head, W. Australia.

Tomboy insights

WHAT a breath of fresh air it was to read the article last week by Kitty Dimbleby. At last some sense has been written on the subject of tomboys.

Why shouldn’t a young girl be able to roll in the mud, play football and enjoy ‘boys’ games’ without being typecast? not all muddy girls want to be boys (or visa versa). B. lARKIN, Burgess Hill, West Sussex.

Adopted with love

i HAD a similar experience to your letter writers who adopted children.

We adopted our first son in 1964 and our second, called Danny, in 1966 — two wonderful boys whom we adored.

Unfortunately, in August 2010 my lovely Danny died from pancreatic cancer and not a day goes by when i don’t cry for him.

Even when they were children, my late husband’s family used to say to him: ‘Who are you going to leave your house to when you pass away? You can’t leave it to them — they are no relation.’

You don’t have to be a blood relation to love someone. MADElEINE PARKER,

Grimsby, lincs.