‘Those in the BBC / government who earn over £159,000 per year should have their pay frozen for two years’

• THE promised “freeze” on the BBC TV licence at £159 makes my blood run cold.

In a climate where so many people are barely getting by, by charging a standard fee to all without properly considering circumstances is an anachronistic and cruel method of operating.

A couple of years ago I helped a lady in her late 70s work out her entitlement to pension credit because she had no savings and awful anxiety about how simply to pay the fee since pensioners had been required to do so.

It is an outrage! Why have the government or the BBC in their nepotistic blindness not implemented fairer and more adequate means-testing on the licence fee?

For example, those on universal credit could be discounted by 75 per cent and for pensioners who could afford it be requested to pay 25 per cent. But it should be a choice.

While the BBC are busy paying radio presenters astronomical amounts – Zoe Ball to sound upbeat and laugh a lot, the Canon Kate Bottley dosing out cheap grace with comments like “We love you lots” and Gary Lineker earning millions – the wage structure at the BBC is offensive.

Give a thought for all those who make the sacrifices to pay so disproportionately with nothing left at the end of the week but worry.

Those in the BBC / government who earn over £159,000 per year should have their pay frozen for two years – yes it sounds ridiculous but no more ridiculous than the current proposal to freeze the rip-off fee.

Is that supposed to be good news? For whom?

I would suggest a bursary might be a good way forward. Perhaps those earning in excess of £75,000 per year in government or BBC should be required to pay into a hardship / tax fund for those who can’t pay and have never had a holiday and are living on the edge or who only wish to watch ITV.

The new culture secretary and the opposition should fight the cause for the people actually paying the real price for the greed of those currently benefiting from the draconian system.

Any attempt by this unctuous government to deflect current circumstances and hide Boris Johnson’s failings by introducing news of this nature in an attempt to disguise recent wrongdoings will simply not wash.

The people have had enough. We want to see change and reform with moral and ethical goodness at the centre.

Please stand down prime minister we deserve better than this and you invoke only misery and pain.

SUE BANKS, NW1