Reader highlights irony in letters whinging about the BBC - your letters, and archive image captures rock choir joy

​BBC licence fee is not unique

Oh dear! Here we go again!

Two consecutive letters on the same night whinging about the BBC. Both moan about the licence fee. This is a reasonably common way of financing public broadcasting. Some countries have abolished it in favour of funding from general taxation, while at least one country, Germany, charges a fee to all households irrespective of whether they possess or use a television.

Chris Smith refers to "DEI" - a strange Americanism when discussing a British institution - while Keith Jones explicitly refers to the BBC as "left-wing", and indeed asserts that "we all know" that this is the case. This prompts the rather interesting question of who lurks behind the pronoun "we". It certainly doesn't include the late Greg Philo and his colleagues who spend decades analysing the output of the BBC and finding it reliably backed elite, ruling-call narratives. The claim that the BBC is in any sense "left-wing" is almost endearingly daft, given that it has constantly been led by rightward inclined figures from Reith onwards, including most recently Tory figures like Tim Davie and Robbie Gibb.

Alan Harrison, Midlands

Aunt Dolly JP to dish out justice

As soon as the Government announced they wanted to recruit 2,000 more Magistrates Aunt Dolly, Uncle Norbert and I put ourselves forward. Hoping that in the future there will be some proper sentencing, Aunt Dolly is making us all some judicial black caps.

As well as putting ourselves forward we have submitted ideas to help streamline the legal system, so definitely no juries.

Before proceedings begin the guilty persons previous convictions would be read out. Anyone with 1 to 3 convictions will be considered guilty unless they can convince the Bench within 10 minutes they are innocent via a video link. With 4 to 9 convictions the guilty person would have 1 minute to prove their innocence. Those with 10 or more convictions, throw away the key and set the dogs on them.

To try and shame the guilty onto a righteous path, while they carry out work in their community, we had thought to dress them all in a pink fairy outfit, but upon reflection we decided against it as it might increase the crime rate.

Peter Steggles, Rushbury

Flags show hope

Just like V Garner, I find the presence of more of our national flags on streets and houses a sign of hope, not a symbol of racism. For many decades now governments have had a mission to wipe out the national identities of countries and replace it with a mishmash of cultures - many of which will never integrate. One of the most diverse nations on Earth is USA, and they are proud of their flag, and fly it everywhere.

Chris Smith, Horsehay

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