Dear editor,

The BBC is a national treasure. Or is it? The ending of free licences for over 75s seems to prove that actually it’s a gravy train that doesn’t so much serve the nation as gulp down as much loot as possible and then turn round and stick two fingers up to us all.

Many of its presenters are grossly overpaid. Its website is rubbish. Its news programmes don’t so much present the news as criticize everything the government does, as though the BBC ran the country not parliament.

It needs a thorough going-over, yes we need an independent, national, publicly funded media body - such as the BBC - but the BBC as we know it has got way out of hand.

Yes, Gary Lineker is a very nice bloke who knows a bit about football, but is he worth £1.75 million a year?

There are loads of them getting from £250,000 upwards. If you thought being an MEP was good number then being a played-out BBC presenter really takes the biscuit.

When the BBC and government reached an agreement about future funding a few years ago, it was agreed that the BBC would take on the cost of funding the free licences for over 75s, and that they would achieve that by cutting costs.

Now they have changed their mind and will only pay for the licenses of over 75s on pension credit, the cost cutting has of course gone flying out the window.

I think the government would like to not be involved in this, what can only be described as, pathetic backsliding, and I can’t blame them.

So step one - sack Gary Lineker and put Alan Shearer in his place. Shearer only gets a quarter of what Lineker gets, and then do much the same elsewhere. Simples! And pay for all the over 75s TV licences.

Brian Simmonds, Hatch Warren, Basingstoke.