Letter: Briefly

AS A journalist who worked on all the major BBC Television News programmes until the last election, I was surprised by Godfrey Hodgson's sycophantic portrait of Sir John Birt ("Out to save the BBC - and he might", 8 November).

Birt simply couldn't communicate with people who appreciated the values of the BBC. After ritual huffings and puffings, the Charter would have been renewed no matter who ran the show.

Now the place is a shambles, with Birt and his sidekick, Sir Christopher Bland, using licence-payers' money to fund a service virtually nobody can see and few want to, while cherished sports programmes are snatched away by predators, and where technical glitches and managerial gaffes are a daily occurrence.