MR Towner missed my point about the BBC licence fee (Letters, Jan 27).

The NHS is an arm of the state and an essential service, Strictly Come Dancing is not essential to anything, argument scotched.

Because the BBC burns millions on people like Gary Lineker to preach politics, they can’t afford broadcasting rights to sports I want to watch.

I pay £3 a week to subsidise Mr Towner's BBC viewing in order to use an alternative service which costs the BBC nothing to produce, therefore it’s theft, regardless of whether that theft is a bargain or not.

I wouldn’t abolish the BBC, some people think Mrs Brown's Boys is actually funny, but those people alone should pay for it, which would naturally imply higher BBC subscription costs.

There’s the real reason BBC viewers support the licence fee.

I pay a mere £2 a week for Amazon Prime, an even better bargain than the BBC. Mr Towner doesn’t contribute a penny towards that subscription nor do I expect him to.

Why is this simple principle of fairness so hard to understand?

Dr Scott Marmion,

Woodthorpe,

York