Even by current political standards, Mr Drax (his column, Friday March 17) delivers a worryingly incomplete and misleading account.

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of the government’s immigration bill, two key issues are raised by the Lineker tweet affair.

One is that the duty of impartiality as applied to free-lance operators (as opposed to BBC employees) is not actually very clear. The other issue is inconsistency: free-lancers in a similar position to Lineker have been treated very differently in the recent past.

Michael Portillo, as well as presenting rail journey programmes, also writes a partisan political newspaper column; Lord Sugar and Baroness Brady both feel free to express strong political views on social media; Andrew Neil until recently presented political programmes on the BBC while pursuing an active life as a right-wing political journalist elsewhere.

Mr Drax must know all this.

While those hostile to the idea of an impartial BBC are very good at invoking an artificial fury at its supposed left-wing bias, what has emerged recently is precisely the opposite.

Indeed, many worried BBC personnel over the last week have leaked fears that the BBC senior management has become increasingly sympathetic to the Conservative Party, or increasingly intimidated by the sort of government threats over the broadcasting licence that Mr Drax himself crudely raises in his column, and they quote editorial directives that explicitly derive from Downing Street.

Mr Drax, as an ex-journalist, understands very well (or so his previous columns have implied) what is involved in fair reporting.

It is good that the Echo extends to our local MPs the courtesy of a weekly column, but it is a privilege, not a right. Mr Drax’s highly misleading column last week abused that privilege. We deserve better: he should apologise.

Barry Tempest

Dorchester