This is why all over-75s should refuse to pay BBC licence fee – Yorkshire Post letters

AS a follow up to Martin Powell’s recent letter (The Yorkshire Post, June 10) regarding the BBC’s inability to present news, isn’t the Beeb like the curate’s egg – [only] good in parts?

Doesn’t the BBC excel in the arts, the sciences, history, technology and sport – when it puts it on – and events? But don’t its producers, editors and presenters fall very short on news and current affairs, where opinions – often biased – are their sport of the day? Even newsworthy facts are misinterpreted or misrepresented.

The BBC’s pièce de résistance should be news and current affairs, but it is now the area most wanting. And that’s down to the people who are employed to deliver it, who, like politicians, live in their own protected and profligate bubble.

And here’s the smack in the face – dropping the free licence fee for the over-75s.

Over 75s – just don’t pay it. They’ll not have the cash to chase it up from three million. And if they do chase up, then they clearly have enough cash.

BBC – give us the accurate, neutral and high standard of news and current affairs that we expect; then we might consider paying up.

From: Karl Sheridan, Old Lea, Holme upon Spalding Moor.

SO the BBC has decided to means-test the over-75s to ensure only those on benefits get their TV licence free. Well, I wonder if they realise there are many, many thousands of pensioners whose pension is just above the Government benefit cut off by just a few pounds, meaning they can’t have any benefits but nevertheless exist just above the breadline and meaning the licence fee will add a further burden to them.

What many people, including politicians, fail to realise is that the vast majority of us on pensions are basically on a low fixed income – possibly topped up a little by having been sensible in past years and added to their pot. However even that is fixed.

It will be a bitter pill to swallow. My car tax is around that figure, and yet I get better value for money from my car than the BBC with constant repeat, repeat, repeat and just the odd decent drama chucked in.

It all comes down to the Government wishing to shed responsibility onto the BBC and, as always, regarding pensioners as a nuisance. Next it will be bus passes and finally the NHS!

From: Terry Palmer, South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley.

WHY is this Tory government allowing a non-elected BBC to impose a tax, via means-testing, regarding the TV licence on the over 75s?

And a licence fee on anyone else with a TV.

In this modern society everyone, not just the elderly, should be free to decide if 
they want to watch/listen to the BBC.

Sky and BT have to be paid for to watch, or a block is put on, so why should the BBC be treated differently?

Time for some action from our “bleeding heart” politicians, methinks. Although don’t hold your breath, especially if Brexit is anything to go by.

From: Ray Marshall, Holmdene Drive, Mirfield.

I HEAR free TV licences for the over-75s are to finish next year – this is disgusting. So many rely on TV at this age without paying for the licence.

I dread to think of all the hundreds getting ridiculous salaries at the BBC to provide numerous repeat programmes.

Dreadful. Words fail me. I suggest none of us pay, I don’t think the prisons could accommodate us all!

Education and indoctrination

From: David Rimington, Fairways Drive, Harrogate.

THE recent parents protest at proposed LGBT teaching in primary schools raises some important issues.

Firstly, whose children are they? The parents, the teachers, the state or the LGBT lobby?

At what age is sex education appropriate, and what is appropriate at what age?

Just what is education, and what is indoctrination?

Just what are teachers entitled to teach, and what is the remit of the parents?

As a parent, a grandparent and with some experience of teaching sex education in a 
young offenders unit, and 
some years of working with primary school children as a volunteer, I would suggest the following.

At primary level children 
are already taught at school to treat each other with care and respect.

They learn friendship and co-operation, Many are from a variety of family backgrounds, some rather unstable to say the least.

They learn that all are to be treated with equal care and respect.

At this level girls need to be taught at around age 10 about their periods. A task which 
is the responsibility of the parents. Teachers need only to check that the girls have this information.

Teachers can leave the parents to inform boys as and when they ask questions.

Primary teachers understand that they are not your children. They are in your care and entrusted to you by the parents.

This does not give the right to venture into areas which are the responsibility of the parents.

To do so is to break the trust of the parents.

At secondary school level the situation is different.

Children then need to be taught biology. They need facts, not indoctrination.

They need to learn about the male and female reproductive system, and as time passes of conception, contraception and sexually-transmitted diseases.

The truth is the LGBT lobby do not want tolerance. They want approval. They want endorsement. They want a round of applause.

They seek this through the indoctrination of those who are far too young to understand and evaluate what they are being taught.