The BBC is an expensive cup of coffee when it’s not your cup of tea

sir – Gwyneth Dear (Letters, January 23) asks what all the fuss is about, as the BBC licence fee equates to the price of one coffee a week.

If a brand of coffee consistently raised my blood pressure unduly I’d be stupid to keep drinking it. The BBC regularly pushes mine to danger levels with its unrelenting political bias, not helped when spokespeople show their contempt for fee payers by denying it. I can opt not to pay for a coffee but not the BBC licence fee. Colin Drury

Dinas Powys, Vale of Glamorgan

sir – It is not the cost of the coffee that is irritating people. It is the fact that one is taxed for a coffee when all one wanted was a cup of tea.

C B H Walshe

Ryde, Isle of Wight

sir – The BBC is always happy to debate the role it plays for Britain at home and abroad. We receive public money, so that debate is absolutely right. But it is wrong to claim that the

BBC has reneged on the agreement made with government on the future of licence fees for the over-75s (Leading Article, January 21).

The agreement was that the BBC board – after a public consultation – would make decisions about the future. The board would make the policy decision and would pay for it. That’s written into an Act of Parliament.

Both Tony Hall, the directorgeneral, and John Whittingdale, then Secretary of State, are on the record that, at the time the agreement was reached between the BBC and the government, reform of the current system was a possible outcome. Clare Sumner

Director, Policy, BBC London W1

sir – Why should pensioners pay for a licence when more and more programmes are being aimed at younger audiences? The BBC is to axe The Victoria Derbyshire Show (report, January 23) and target resources at younger viewers. You also report Age UK saying that pensioners face the choice of no television or no heating. Josie Lloyd

Brentwood, Essex

sir – I cannot receive DAB on the digital radio in my house, so I use the television set solely for listening to LBC, which is only available via DAB. The television has a stronger signal. I also need the television to play DVDS.

Am I likely to be fined when the BBC’S licencing enforcers call? Fay Davies

Llandysul, Cardiganshire

sir – I noticed two programmes about health that interested me, scheduled at the same time on BBC One and BBC Two. Why didn’t I watch one on the iplayer later? Well, I’m in Tenerife and despite being a licence payer in the UK I cannot access the iplayer here.

It’s time the BBC was run by people with some common sense. Amanda Malas

Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Spain