IN recent months, we have had the murmurings about free television licences for the elderly. More recently, we have your articles about shame of licence dodgers (LET, December 8 and 17).

We make criminals of people who, for whatever reason, have not paid for a licence. Surely it should not be an offence to watch TV, albeit without a licence.

Why is it none of our MPs ever challenge why should we have a TV licence at all? Can we simply not abolish it?

If the BBC has to survive, then it will have to evolve. Why is the BBC sacrosanct?

Cut the salaries of TV and radio presenters. Have you heard some of them?

Do other European countries have to pay for licensed TV? Of course, the BBC will need to obtain revenue to fund itself.

Perhaps our government could fund it via our taxes. Perhaps the government could sell off the frequencies used by BBC to the highest bidder, just like they did recently with some radio frequencies given by the Russians to the people of Britain for a Christian radio station. Did you know Christians are not allowed by law to have a national radio station that offers a Christian content? I believe the BBC has that monopoly.

The BBC was founded on Christian values, to which it no longer adheres. This alone should be enough to revoke their privileged position.

There is supposed to be choice now. There is terrestrial, cable and satellite. I may choose from many different service providers, but why must I pay the BBC before I can choose any of the others?

This is as absurd as paying a fee to the Roman Catholic Church before I can walk into a Church of England church or a mosque or any other place of worship.

So come on, members of parliament, take this one up.

JOSEPH BEARDSWORTH, Falcon Avenue, Darwen.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.