Save free TV licences for over-75s by moving BBC operations to the midlands

We regularly see articles published which mock millennials for their allegedly entitled behaviour, often making such outlandish claims that more people under the age of 30 would be able to buy their own home if they stopped spending all their money on avocados and coffee. I have yet to see one article spouting similarly sneery stereotypes about the over-75s, maybe saying things like “they can pay for their TV licence if they cut down on their Werther’s Original consumption” or “give up your free bus pass and you can have a TV licence”.

In any case, if the BBC needs to save money I suggest it moves more of its operations out of London. The midlands already accounts for 25 per cent of the BBC’s licence-fee income but only 1.5 per cent of the BBC’s programming budget is spent there, while 19.7 per cent is spent in the north and 49.4 per cent in London. It has a sizeable base in Manchester and now that Channel 4 has taken 300 jobs up north to Leeds that leaves a large area in the middle of the country called the midlands without much media representation. Create a new Media City in Birmingham and that will save more than enough money to continue subsidising pensioners, as well as producing a far more representative BBC.

Jonathan Snow
Coventry

If Julian Assange can be prosecuted for exposing crimes then why haven’t those that perpetrated said crimes been prosecuted?

They too should be handcuffed and dragged to prison. Assange’s only crime was to reveal to the American people and the world community what atrocities the US government has committed (and is still probably committing) in the shadows. Many of us are grateful to him for showing us what our media failed to expose.

At a time where journalists across the globe are under threat of persecution for doing their job it’s imperative that we citizens of the world stand with them demanding that their voices not be silenced, but heard and protected.

Wilma Tracy Nadeau
Los Angeles

Rory Stewart would have placed himself head and shoulders above the other contenders in the Tory concours d’inelegance if he had stated that his Afghanistan adventure had been culturally and socially appropriate in that setting.

But he didn’t. He weaselled.

He appears the least worst, but in such an appallingly unattractive field that is no real endorsement.

Steve Ford
Haydon Bridge

Boris Johnson is an adulterous liar of no discernible merit whose achievements could be inscribed on the head of a pin and still leave space. What does it say about us – and the press – that his aspiring to the highest office is not met with incredulous laughter and general mockery?

Michael Rosenthal
Banbury

John Rentoul’s rundown of all the people orchestrating Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign was enlightening.

It was interesting to see that at his launch appearance he deigned to answer only a few questions. This was, presumably, all part of the master plan. But what are we to deduce?

Do the people of his team simply realise that his foot-in-mouth skills are such a threat to the campaign that if he is to win he should speak as little as possible? Or are they not very subtly trying to demonstrate that even they regard him as too much of a danger to their party and country to be allowed to be PM?

Were they really hoping that one of the others would triumph? Perhaps they see the poison in the chalice and know that the winner on this occasion is likely to suffer the same fate as Theresa May, so they hope to save their candidate for after the general election.

Do they actually think that the Conservative Party has any hope of surviving, whatever the outcome after 31 October? Oh to be a fly on the wall!

Susan Alexander
Frampton Cotterell​

Boris Johnson said at his launch this morning that as the new PM he would have a new mandate.

Surely to have a new mandate he would have to win a general election!

Alan Hutchinson
Address supplied