Shut down BBC until it pays its way

bill Carmichael (The Yorkshire Post, March 14) states that “the current funding method for the BBC has long been a bizarre anachronism”.

Anyone who has read previous comments of mine in these pages with regard to the BBC will know that I think this is just one of a number of issues that persuade me that I would close the BBC down tomorrow if I had my way, and it would only be allowed to broadcast again if it could pay its own way commercially (as its competitors have to) and if it was run by individuals who listened to, and took notice of, the opinions of its viewers.

The arrogance of BBC executives is truly breathtaking, as Bill Carmichael’s column shows, when they completely ignore the groundswell of national opinion on the issue of the licence – the equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and going “La-la-la” very loudly – and continue plotting ways of justifying it and, along with it, their jobs.

Similarly, despite years and years of complaints received over objectionable programme content and the constant inclusion of obscene language, it has made no difference whatsoever. The BBC continues to make lame and totally unacceptable excuses to justify its policies.

As I say, if it was up to me (and it really should be up to all of us – the Beeb is, after all, a public corporation and we pay the bills) I’d close it down tomorrow and it would stay closed until it could justify its existence in the real world, and its management learn what it means to earn a salary instead of simply having it handed to them on a licence-funded platter.

Richard, King of the North

From: MJ Dickinson, Waters Walk, Bradford.

I WISH to congratulate The Yorkshire Post for its campaign to return Yorkshire’s only King, Richard III home to, as he wrote “my fair city of York” for reburial.

Besides spending part of his childhood here, Richard was, at the age of 18, granted Middleham and other lands in the North in 1471. At 19, it was his permanent married home where his son was born. Eventually Richard ruled a vast area from north of the river Trent to Carlisle and Durham with great efficiency, selling and exchanging his southern lands for more in the north. Scarborough, Skipton and Helmsley were gained this way. As Lord Fellowes said in his letter of support: “At a time of limited communications he was essentially ‘king’ of the North.”

Undoubtedly he felt at home here, and I quote: “He kept himself within his own lands (the North).... and set out to acquire the loyalty of his people through favour and justice (Dominic Mancini 1483).”

His choice of York Minster for the investiture of his son as Prince of Wales shows his attachment and love for York and the North, and in turn its people supported him “...even after his fall when their help was of no avail, his memory lay at the bottom of their hearts ever springing up again to be cherished and lamented” (James Raine, 1859).

His planning of a Chantry at the Minster is a clear indication of his wishes for his place of burial.

I urge your readers to support your campaign to bring our King home, and sign the online petition, or through kingrichardcampaign.org.uk

From: Mary Hellawell, Cross Lane, Scarborough.

RICHARD III should be buried in York Minster, or Westminster, not Leicester. We are not happy as Yorkists with the way the University of Leicester was granted burial rights without any public discussion. But even more importantly, the present generation of his family should be the ones whose wishes should be paramount.

Safe haven
in Yorkshire

From: David H Rhodes, Keble Park North, Bishopthorpe, York.

YOUR article (The Yorkshire Post, March 13) on acts of kindness to those who sought sanctuary in this country at the start of the First World War was of great interest.

My mother’s story as a Serbian girl also reflects kindness. Initially in Serbia the Germans overran her village twice so the elders arranged for the girls to be sent to the south of France to be looked after and educated at a school there.

When it became unsafe in France, the girls were shipped to Hull.

Standing on the dockside, a Hull lady doctor came and picked out my mother and her friend and they resided with her and not at school in Whitby.

She was 14 at the time.

My mother trained as a nurse at Leeds General Infirmary and then became a deputy matron/theatre sister at a cottage hospital before getting married.

She was forever grateful for the sanctuary given her.

Local touch still needed

From: Miss Wendy M Sherwood, Woodfield Avenue, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

CONGRATULATIONS on your new-look The Yorkshire Post. I think it is a great improvement.

I don’t know, but I seem to be able to read it better. I always read the paper from one end to another. I go for it at 6am. It is an excellent paper.

However, there is one complaint. Years ago, we seemed to have a lot more of Harrogate, Knaresborough and district news.

In this area we seem to get more South Yorkshire and Leeds news. A lot of people in this area are of the same opinion as we obviously like local news.