Letter: How parties try to bully the BBC

Sir: When I was on the Panorama team in 1964, we held a private poll to discover how the commentators, directors, producers and others in what was the BBC's flagship political programme proposed to vote in the general election.

To my surprise, we were split down the middle - with a tiny majority (52 per cent) voting Conservative. In the event, of course, Harold Wilson brought in a Labour government.

Without exception we all celebrated - because it meant we could look forward to a whole new range of political and social issues to provide fodder for our investigations. Our enthusiasm could so easily, and so wrongly, have been attributed to political bias.

MICHAEL BARRATT

Holyport, Berkshire